Federal investigators are looking to determine what caused the crash of an unresponsive plane that saw military jets scramble to intercept it after the Cessna was spotted flying off course over the Washington, D.C., area.
on Monday to"begin the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft," the agency said in a statement.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as NORAD, said F-16 fighter aircraft intercepted the plane after it was seen flying off course over the U.S. capital area. They tried to make contact with the pilot repeatedly using flares until just before the plane crashed near George Washington and Jefferson National Forest.
NORAD said a sonic boom “may have been heard by residents of the region,” with the sound reported around 3 p.m. to local law enforcement and on social media throughout the District of Columbia-Northern Virginia-Maryland area, known as the DMV. Authorities secure the entrance to Mine Bank Trail, an access point to the rescue operation along the Blue Ridge Parkway where a Cessna Citation crashed Sunday over mountainous terrain near Montebello, Va..Pilots from the Capital Guardians, a unit of the 113th Wing of the D.C. National Guard, found that the pilot was incapacitated, a senior government official said. They said the plane may have run out of fuel.
“The whole 180-degree turn around New York and then tracking directly over Washington, D.C. That sounds very odd to me," NBC News aviation analyst Jeff Guzzetti said.
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