Two fighter jets intervene in Washington skies to intercept private jet that crashes in Virginia

On Sunday, June 4, in Washington, a supersonic boom sounded as two fighter jets tried to intercept an unresponsive device before it crashed in the state of Virginia. Residents of the US federal capital and its suburbs reported hearing a rumble of thunder that shook windows and walls for miles and raised questions on social media.

Two F-16 fighter jets were mobilized as a private jet was unresponsive “Cessna 560 Citation V Washington and Northern Virginia”, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) described in a press release. The two fighter jets took off from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, a Pentagon official told Agence France-Presse, to join the crashed plane in a mountain area in southern Virginia.

President Joe Biden, who was in the area Sunday, has been briefed on the incident, a White House official told reporters, without specifying whether any precautionary measures had been taken.

A pioneer on board is four people

According to the US Civil Aviation Authority (FAA), the civil aircraft took off from Elizabethan, Tennessee to land in Long Island, New York state.

NORAD fighters “It was allowed to travel at supersonic speeds and the sonic boom was heard by residents of the area”, described the command in a press release. A sonic boom occurs when a device breaks the sound barrier. They can surprise people and cause damage, especially by breaking windows.

Norad said he intercepted the flight at around 3:20pm local time and tried to make contact with the pilot before the plane crashed. The aircraft also threw debris in an attempt to attract the pilot’s attention. The plane crashed near Montebello, Va., about 270 miles southwest of Washington, around 3:30 p.m. local time, the FAA said. Several US media reported that the military did not shoot down the plane.

The crashed jet was registered to a Florida-based company. said John Rumpel, who runs the company The New York Times His daughter, his 2-year-old granddaughter, his nanny and the pilot were on board. They were returning home to East Hampton, Long Island, after visiting him in North Carolina.