A Florida businessman claims that his family was on board the errant and unresponsive business plane that caused the Pentagon to scramble an interceptor fighter jet Sunday afternoon as it passed over the nation’s capital.
Around 3.30 p.m., a private Cessna aircraft from Elizabethton, Tennessee, appeared to be unresponsive as it approached both the White House and the US Capitol, according to Federal Aviation Administration officials.
According to flight patterns, the plane was bound towards Long Island, New York, but after arriving there, it turned around and flew back to Washington, DC. According to a source acquainted with the matter, at the time it seemed to be operating automatically.
Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. was the registered owner of the crashed aircraft.
When contacted by a reporter for The Associated Press on Sunday, a woman who identified herself as Barbara Rumpel, who is listed as the president of the business in Melbourne, Florida, said she had no comment.
The owner of Encore Motors, John Rumpel, stated that his daughter, grandchild, and the child’s babysitter were all aboard the aircraft.
According to new developments, US F-16 fighter jets were quickly dispatched in response to an unresponsive aircraft in restricted airspace that ultimately crashed in the southwest of Virginia. This caused a sonic boom, startling residents in the Washington, DC area that reverberated throughout the region in Maryland and Virginia.
On Sunday afternoon, a Cessna Citation was confirmed by the FAA to have crashed into Southwest Virginia’s hilly terrain.
“A Cessna Citation crashed into mountainous terrain in a sparsely populated area of southwest Virginia around 3 p.m. local time on June 4. The aircraft took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tenn., and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York,” FAA said in a statement.
“The FAA and NTSB will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and provide all further updates,” it added.
After deviating from its planned landing in Ronkonkoma, NY, N611VG a Cessna C560 jet flew right over Washington DC before contact was lost near Montebello, VA. Reports of a sonic boom were heard in the DC area, one could presume jets were scrambled to get eyes on the situatio. pic.twitter.com/9pRDw79o6h
— Zach Halverson (@ZachHalverson) June 4, 2023
In a statement, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) denied shooting the plane down over Virginia.
“In coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, NORAD F-16 fighter aircraft responded to an unresponsive Cessna 560 Citation V aircraft over Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia on June 4, 2023.”
“The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region.”
“The civilian aircraft was intercepted at approximately 3:20 p.m. Eastern Time. The pilot was unresponsive and the Cessna subsequently crashed near the George Washington National Forest, Virginia. NORAD attempted to establish contact with the pilot until the aircraft crashed.”
According to NORAD, the Cessna was intercepted by four F-16 fighter planes, two of which came from the Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC, which is part of the National Guard, and two of which came from a base in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In order to catch up with the airliner, two F-16 fighter planes based at Andrews were given permission to fly at speeds greater than the speed of sound.
The Department of Defense stated that the pursuit did not cause the plane to crash.
