A private jet headed for Long Island crashed into Virginia woods after creating a scare in Washington, D.C., according to officials, and so far no survivors have been found.
The Cessna Citation jet took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee on Sunday and was headed to MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it lost contact with the plane around 1:30 p.m. — just over 15 minutes after takeoff.
The plane had reached central Long Island when it turned around, began flying on a southwest path and did not respond to air traffic control, sources told NBC Washington.
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The Cessna flew directly over northwest D.C. and through Virginia at about 3:30 p.m. A defense official told NBC News that NORAD F-16s scrambled, began shadowing the plane and saw the pilot onboard was incapacitated. The pilot did not respond to radio calls, and jet pilots tried using flares to get the pilot's attention, but with no luck.
The FAA said the Cessna later "crashed into mountainous terrain in a sparsely populated area of southwest Virginia" after it had dropped off radar and created a sonic boom in the area near the nation's capital, with video on social media showing how the sound and shockwave startled people from Baltimore to Fredericksburg, Virginia. The fighter jets did not cause the plane to go down, the defense official added.
"The pilot was unresponsive, and the Cessna subsequently crashed near the George Washington National Forest, Virginia," the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement. "NORAD attempted to establish contact with the pilot until the aircraft crashed."
The plane's owner told NBC News that four people were on board. State police said none survived the crash.
NBC News reported that the Cessna Citation belongs to John and Barbara Rumpel from Melbourne, Florida. John Rumpel said his daughter, granddaughter, nanny and their pilot were all on board. Family members said Adina Azarian, her 2-year-old daughter Aria, and the child's nanny were on their way home to East Hampton when the plane crashed.
Azarian was a Hamptons real estate broker. A friend of hers called her "a very open person and a great friend," and said she had wanted to be a mother for a long time.
"She tried many times to have a kid, it was a long process for her. But she never gave up and she finally had a daughter," said friend Lakhinder Vohra.
Aerial footage showed a fiery scene in the George Washington National Forest. There was smoke rising from the crash site and charred, unrecognizable jet debris.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the circumstances of the crash. One theory is that the cabin may have lost pressure.
“Investigators will find out whether or not that was intended or perhaps they were experiencing some sort of mechanical malfunction with the pressurization system and that caused them to turn around and do a 180° turn,” NBC News Aviation Analyst Jeff Guzzetti said. “We just don't know. Hopefully the flight recorders will be intact.”
Timeline of Events
A senior government official broke down the series of events leading up to the plane's crash in rural Virginia:
- 1:13 p.m.: Cessna Citation jet takes off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee
- 1:28 p.m.: Atlanta air traffic control radioed aircraft to stop its climb at 33,000 feet. Pilot did not respond to that call
- Multiple attempts were made to contact the plane, but none were successful
- After plane turned around to head back south, jets were summoned to go monitor plane; jet pilots saw pilot slumped over
- 3:32 p.m.: Plane runs out of fuel and crashes into woods; pilot had been out of communication with controller for two hours
