Today, Monday, the American authorities announced the death of four passengers of a private plane, whose lack of response, while it was flying on Sunday near Washington, led to the intervention of two F-16 fighter jets, which caused a powerful sonic boom over the federal capital. .
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“Rescuers found no survivors,” police in the eastern US state told AFP when they reached the crash site on foot in Virginia shortly before 8 p.m. The search has ended.
Two F-16 fighters are mobbed due to the lack of response of this special aircraft “Cessna 560 Citation V over Washington and Northern Virginia,” the US Aerospace and Defense Command du Nord (NORAD) said in a press release.
The plane then crashed in a mountainous area in southwest Virginia, about 270 kilometers from Washington, according to the US Civil Aviation Authority (FAA).
The intervention of the hunters who crossed the sound barrier caused a thunderous noise that shook windows and walls for miles around, especially in the federal capital, and raised many questions on social media.
The owner of the company for which the plane was registered, John Rampell, told the Washington Post on Sunday that his entire family was on board, including his daughter as well as his grandson and nanny.
Responding to messages of condolence posted on his Facebook page, his wife, Barbara Rumble, wrote: “My family is no longer in this world, my daughter and granddaughter.”
The plane took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, bound for Long Island, New York, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
However, flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said the plane turned back after flying over Long Island to head south, passing over Washington and Virginia.
The Capitol Police said the US Capitol and ancillary buildings in Washington were “briefly placed on high alert until the aircraft departed the area.”
