WASHINGTON — A private plane hovered erratically over the US capital on Sunday, prompting the military to deploy a fighter aircraft before the plane crashed in Virginia, authorities said. The fighter jets caused a sonic boom that was heard throughout the Washington region.
Hours later, police said rescue crews had arrived at the crash site in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley and found no survivors.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA, for its acronym in English) indicated that the Cessna Citation jet took off from Elizabethtown, Tennessee, in the direction of MacArthur Airport on Long Island, New York. The plane inexplicably turned back over Long Island and headed directly toward Washington before crashing into mountainous terrain near Montebello, Virginia, at approximately 3:30 p.m.
At the moment the cause of the crash and why the plane did not respond to messages are unknown. Regarding how many people were on board, Telemundo Noticias reported 4 people. The aircraft flew directly over the nation’s capital, even though it was technically hovering over some of the country’s most restricted airspace.
A federal official confirmed to The Associated Press that a military aircraft was deployed to respond to the erratic behavior of the private Cesna, which was not responding to radio transmissions and later crashed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to comment on the details of the military operation.
Flight monitoring websites showed the plane was in a nosedive, descending at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute, before crashing in the St. Mary’s Wilderness.
To see more from Telemundo, visit
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) later said in a statement that an F-16 was cleared to travel at supersonic speeds, which caused the sonic boom.
“During this event, the NORAD aircraft also used flares, which may have been seen by the public, in an attempt to attract the pilot’s attention,” the statement said. “Flares are used with the utmost care for the safety of the intercepted aircraft and people on the ground. The flares are quickly and completely consumed, and people on the ground are not in danger when they are used.”
Virginia State Police said their officers were notified of a possible crash shortly before 4 p.m. and rescuers arrived at the crash site on foot about four hours later. They found no survivors, police added.
The plane that crashed was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. John Rumpel, who runs the company, told The New York Times that his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, her nanny and the pilot were on board the plane. They were returning to his residence in East Hampton, Long Island, after visiting him at his North Carolina residence, he said.
