F16s Attempt Intercept of Private Plane Over Washington DC

People in the Washington DC area were startled by a sonic boom yesterday afternoon. The cause was two US Air Force F16 fighter jets operating at supersonic speed. They were scrambled after FAA controllers lost contact with the pilot of a private plane, a Cessna Citation, and the plane began to enter the 'No Fly Zone' over the nation's Capitol. The plane's flight plan was for a trip from Elizabethton, Tennessee to MacArthur Airport on Long Island. Upon reaching the New York area the plane reportedly turned and headed south.

At first, officials were unsure as to what they were dealing with and the Capitol went on "elevated alert" for a brief time. It has been widely reported:

Quote:

The pilot of the civilian aircraft was unresponsive as the F-16 fighter jets attempted to make contact, according to a news release from the Continental US North American Aerospace Defense Command Region. The F-16 jets were “authorized to travel at supersonic speeds,” which resulted in the sonic boom heard in the Washington, DC, area. The F-16s used flares “in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot,” the release added. CNN news link

The incident ended in tragedy. The private plane continued southwest of Washington with officials suspecting the pilot had become incapacitated in some way, possibly a result of the depressurization of the passenger cabin. NORAD continued to try and make contact until just before 4pm Eastern time, when the plane crashed in a wooded area in Virginia's George Washington National Forest, about 110 miles southwest of Washington.

It turned out the plane was registered to a Florida business, Encore Motors, owned or controlled by a man named John Rumpel. Rumpel released a statement that the plane was returning his daughter, his two-year-old granddaughter and her nanny to New York after visiting Rumpel in North Carolina. All three were reported killed along with the plane's pilot.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/DLfbuEM