A sonic boom was heard in the Washington D.C. area after the US scrambled F-16 fighters to chase a light aircraft that violated the airspace
WASHINGTON, June 4 - The United States scrambled F-16 fighter jets in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that violated airspace around Washington D.C. and later crashed into the mountains of Virginia, officials said.The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the U.S. capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation, officials said, causing consternation among people in the Washington area.
The Cessna was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Florida, according to the flight-tracking website Flight Aware. The U.S. military attempted to contact the pilot, who was unresponsive, until the Cessna crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.
Incidents involving unresponsive pilots are not unprecedented. Golfer Payne Stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the aircraft he was in flew thousands of miles with the pilot and passengers unresponsive. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota with no survivors.
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