No survivors were found at the crash site of a plane whose pilot was unresponsive as it flew near the Washington, DC, area Sunday, prompting military fighter jets to attempt to intercept the aircraft before it ultimately crashed, authorities say.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) deployed F-16 fighter jets to respond to the unresponsive Cessna 560 Citation V aircraft over Washington, D.C., and Virginia, NORAD said in a statement.
The scramble was conducted by the 113th Fighter Wing of the D.C. National Guard, a U.S. official said.
‘The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,’ NORAD said, adding that flares, which may have been visible to the public, were also used in an attempt to get the pilot’s attention.
The plane had been following ‘a strange flight path,’ the U.S. official said.
The Cessna departed from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Flight trackers showed the plane departing heading north to Long Island from Tennessee before turning around and flying straight down to D.C.
The trackers showed the plane descend rapidly before crashing, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute, The Associated Press reported.
The Cessna was intercepted by the fighter jets at approximately 3:20 p.m. ET.
The pilot remained unresponsive throughout NORAD’s attempts to establish contact, and the aircraft eventually crashed near the George Washington Forest in Virginia, the statement said.
The FAA confirmed that the plane crashed into mountainous terrain near Montebello, Virginia.
A U.S. official told CBS News that the Cessna was not shot down by the F-16s.
Capitol Police said in a statement said that it had monitored the airplane and temporarily placed the Capitol Complex ‘on an elevated alert until the airplane left the area.’
Virginia State Police were notified of the crash and immediately deployed to locate the wreckage, which they reached by foot shortly before 8 p.m., police said.
Mountainous terrain and fog had hindered search efforts, police said. It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the plane.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board confirmed they are jointly investigating the crash.
State police said they have suspended their search and will identify the plane’s passengers when the information becomes available.
US F-16 fighter jets caused a sonic boom across the Washington, DC, region Sunday as they scrambled to reach the unresponsive aircraft, officials said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter it was investigating the crash. The agency said it will arrive at the scene Monday and will begin ‘the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft.’
