The US scrambled F-16 jets in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that violated airspace around Washington and later crashed into the mountains of Virginia, officials said.
No survivors were found at the crash site, Virginia State Police said.
The jets created a sonic boom over the US capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation, officials said, adding that it caused consternation among people in the Washington area.
Photo: AP
Four people were on board the Cessna, a source familiar with the matter said.
A Cessna Citation can carry seven to 12 passengers.
After several hours, first responders reached the crash site, but found no one alive, police said in a statement.
The Cessna was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Florida, flight-tracking Web site Flight Aware said.
Encore owner John Rumpel told the Washington Post that his daughter, a grandchild and her nanny were on board.
“We know nothing about the crash,” the Post quoted Rumpel as saying. “We are talking to the FAA [US Federal Aviation Administration] now.”
The US military attempted to contact the pilot, who was unresponsive, until the Cessna crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement.
The Cessna appeared to be flying on autopilot, another source familiar with the matter said.
“The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,” the statement said, adding that NORAD aircraft also used flares in an attempt to catch the pilot’s attention.
A US official said that the fighters did not cause the crash.
The Cessna took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, about 80km east of Manhattan, the FAA said in a statement.
The agency and the US National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the incident, it said.
Flight Aware said that the plane appeared to reach the New York area, then made a nearly 180-degree turn.
Incidents involving unresponsive pilots are not unprecedented. Golfer Payne Stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the aircraft he was in flew thousands of kilometers with the pilot and passengers unresponsive. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota with no survivors.
In the case of Stewart’s flight, the plane lost cabin pressure, causing the occupants to lose consciousness because of oxygen deprivation.
A small US private plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed off the east coast of Jamaica in 2014 after veering far off course and triggering a US security alert including a jet escort.
On Sunday, the sonic boom rattled many people in the Washington area, some of whom took to Twitter to report hearing a loud noise that shook the ground and walls.
Several residents said they heard the noise as far away as northern Virginia and Maryland.
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