A sonic boom resonated over Washington as two fighter jets were expeditiously dispatched on Sunday to intercept an unresponsive aircraft that later crashed in rural Virginia, according to US officials.
Officials informed that a sonic boom that echoed over Washington Sunday was caused by two fighter jets scrambling to intercept an unresponsive aircraft that later crashed in rural Virginia.
Residents of the city and its suburbs reported hearing the thundering noise, which rattled windows and shook walls for miles and caused social media to light up with people asking what had happened.
The F-16 fighter jets “responded to an unresponsive Cessna 560 Citation V aircraft over Washington, DC, and northern Virginia,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.
The two jets were scrambled from Joint Base Andrews, a Pentagon official informed, and they followed the aircraft that subsequently crashed in a mountainous area of southwest Virginia, one of the states bordering Washington.
Public records showed the plane was registered to Florida-based company Encore Motors of Melbourne, whose owner John Rumpel told The Washington Post his “entire family” was onboard, including his daughter, a grandchild, and her nanny.
However, flight tracking website Flightradar24 indicated that it had turned around after flying over Long Island and headed back south over Washington and into Virginia.
Multiple US media reported the crash wreckage still had not been located, with the Post stating that investigators hoped to reach the site Monday.
NORAD said it attempted to contact the pilot until the plane crashed, intercepting it at approximately 3:20 pm.
Multiple US media reported the military did not shoot down the plane.
As far away as Annapolis, Maryland some 30 miles (48.28 km) northeast of Washington, the city’s Office of Emergency Management quelled residents’ fears, writing on Twitter that the noise “was caused by an authorized DOD flight. This flight caused a sonic boom.”
Sonic booms occur when an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound. They can be a significant nuisance, capable of startling people on the ground and causing damage, like shattered windows.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
