June 5 (UPI) — An aircraft that prompted U.S. fighter jets to be scrambled as it flew unresponsive over Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia has crashed, officials said.
The aircraft, identified as a Cessna 560 Citation V, crashed near the unincorporated community of Montebello, Va., which is located about 120 miles northwest of Richmond, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed on Twitter, saying it was investigating.
First responders reached the crash site near George Washington National Forest on Sunday evening to find no survivors, Virginia State Police said, according to CNN.
Though the identities of those on the plane were not released to the public, John Rumpel, owner of Encore Motors of Melbourne, a Florida-based company that the private Cessna business jet belonged to, told The New York Times that four people were aboard the aircraft, including his daughter, a 2-year-old granddaughter, his granddaughter’s nanny and the pilot.
They were flying home to East Hampton, N.Y., following a four-day trip to Rumple’s residence in North Carolina, when the plane crashed, The Times reported.
“It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed,” Rumpel said.
The plane crashed after U.S. F-16 fighter aircraft intercept the Cessna at about 3:20 p.m.
Continental U.S. NORAD Region said in a statement the pilot was unresponsive and the fighter jets deployed flares in an attempt to draw the pilot’s attention.
“NORAD attempted to establish contact with the pilot until the aircraft crashed,” it said.
The military aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds, which caused a sonic boom to be heard on the ground below as they traveled overhead.
Videos taken from security cameras capturing what sounded like an explosion as the U.S. military aircraft traveled faster than the speed of sound overhead were posted online.
D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management confirmed on Twitter that it has received reports throughout the National Capital Region of people who heard the loud “boom” on Sunday afternoon.
The Annapolis Office of Emergency Management confirmed that the loud boom was caused by an “authorized [Department of Defense] flight.”
U.S. Capital Police said in a statement that the Capitol Complex had been briefly placed under “an elevated alert” as the unresponsive plane traveled in its vicinity.