Sonic Boom In DC Area Caused By Jets Intercepting Unresponsive Plane

MARYLAND/VA/DC — A loud boom shook the Washington, D.C., area, from Annapolis to Woodbridge, shortly after 3 p.m. on Sunday, leaving residents concerned about the noise.

Fighter jets reportedly were scrambled to intercept a Cessna 560 Citation V jet that flew over D.C. and Northern Virginia, causing the sonic boom.

The business jet crashed into mountainous terrain in an area near the George Washington National Forest southwest of Charlottesville, North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a news release Sunday evening.

F-16 jets from Joint Base Andrews were authorized to scramble at supersonic speeds to intercept the Cessna after it came into a no-fly zone in the D.C. area, NORAD said.

The D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency said Sunday afternoon that it was aware of the boom and let residents know there was no threat. The U.S. Capitol Police briefly placed the Capitol Complex on an elevated alert until the airplane left the area.

Soon after the sonic boom, the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management said the loud noise that was heard across the D.C. area was "caused by an authorized DOD flight." Elsewhere in Maryland, the City of Bowie said the noise "was a sonic boom from a plane out of Joint Base Andrews."

At about 3:10 p.m. on Sunday, 911 centers began getting swamped by reports of a loud explosion, NBC4 reported.

A couple was recording a song on their iPhone when the boom shook their house in Fairfax. Another D.C. area resident said she had just started recording a video when she heard the boom.

Fans attending the Washington Nationals game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Nationals Park in Southeast D.C. reporting hearing the boom.

The Cessna had taken off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was headed for Long Island, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The fighter jets intercepted the Cessna around 3:20 p.m. on Sunday. The military jets saw that the pilot onboard was incapacitated before the plane crashed in Augusta County, Virginia.

"NORAD attempted to establish contact with the pilot until the aircraft crashed," the defense command said.

Data from flight tracking service Flightradar24 shows the plane reaching Long Island before turning around and flying over D.C. and into Virginia, according to The Washington Post.

Four people were on board the Cessna that crashed, CNN reported. A Cessna Citation can carry seven to 12 passengers.

At 3:50 p.m. on Sunday, the Virginia State Police were notified of a possible plane crash in the area of Augusta County near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Search efforts by the state police, the Augusta County Sheriff's Office and the Augusta County Fire-Rescue began by ground and air across the region.

Shortly before 8 p.m. on Sunday, a search team was able to reach the crash site by foot, where no survivors were found. The Virginia State Police said they will identify the occupants of the plane found at the site "when the information becomes available."

The Washington Post reported that the Cessna was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, a Florida-based company.

John Rumpel told the Post in an interview that he is the owner of Encore and that his "entire family" was on board the plane that crashed, including his daughter, a grandchild and her nanny.