Unresponsive Plane Headed Toward D.C. Crashes After U.S. Fighter Jets Break Sound Barrier To Intercept It

An unresponsive business plane that flew over Washington, D.C. on Sunday afternoon forced the U.S. military to send in fighter jets to intercept it. But according to officials, the plane crashed in Virginia.

Police stated that first responders reached the plane crash site hours later in the Shenandoah Valley but no survivors were found.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that the plane, which had four people on board, took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was supposed to land in Long Island, New York. Strangely, the plane turned around while flying over the island and flew south toward D.C. before crashing near Raphine, Virginia. It remains unknown why the plane wasn’t responding to radio transmissions and why it crashed.

F-16 fighter jets were “authorized to travel at supersonic speeds” to reach the plane. This caused a sonic boom that was heard across the Washington, D.C. area. When the F-16s got to the plane at around 3:20 p.m., they set off flares to attract the pilot’s attention, but the pilot didn’t react.

The business aircraft belongs to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Inc., a company based in Florida and run by John and Barbara Rumpel. John Rumpel said the plane may have lost pressurization. He stated, “It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed.”

John and Barbara’s daughter as well as their 2-year-old granddaughter and her nanny were on the plane.

The Rumpels are major donors to former President Donald Trump.