Plane crashed in Virginia was carrying a family, including a 2 year old girl
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The plane was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne and its owner, 75-year-old John Rumpel, who testified that his family was flying back from a trip to North Carolina
The owner of the aircraft that crashed this Sunday near Washington DC (USA) after planes from the Armed Forces tried to establish contact with the pilot without success, told several media today that his family was on board.
The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) is investigating the causes that led to the private aircraft of the Cessna brand crashing in a “mountainous area” near Montebello, Virginia.
According to The New York Times, the plane was registered to the company Encore Motors of Melbourne and its owner, John Rumpel, 75, told the newspaper that his daughter, a 2-year-old granddaughter and her husband were on board. nanny, returning home to East Hampton, New York from a family visit in North Carolina.
F-16s chasing a private jet cause loud sonic boom across DC https://t.co/FnAa4OXW4k pic.twitter.com/cS7WonaWLi
— The Independent (@Independent) June 5, 2023
The FAA said the plane was bound for MacArthur Airport on Long Island, the area of ​​New York state where East Hampton is located, and that it had left the city of Elizabethton, in the state of Tennessee, a neighbor of North Carolina. , in the south of the country.
Rumpel also told The Washington Post that he was in contact with the FAA, saying his “entire family” he was on the plane and lamented that “no one could survive” given the rate of descent before crashing.
Virginia State Police told local channel WFXR on Sunday night that the search was underway, but the weather conditions were bad.
Reveal that F-16 fighter jets intercepted crashed plane near Washington https://t.co/e7qsCKGRqd
— La Opinion (@LaOpinionLA) June 5, 2023
The plane flew over Washington and Virginia and was intercepted by F-16 fighter jets, which flew at supersonic speeds and used flares to get the pilot's attention without responding,
The supersonic roar from the fighter jets drew the attention of residents of the Washington DC metropolitan area, but authorities said shortly thereafter that there was no active threat and that the noise came from a “authorized flight by the Department of Defense”.