Supersonic Fighters Chase Bizjet Over Washington

A Cessna Citation with four people onboard crashed in the mountains of Virginia after it overflew Washington, D.C., restricted airspace on Sunday and its pilot did not respond to numerous attempts at contact. The incident prompted the scrambling of fighters that went supersonic and caused a sonic boom that rattled windows and nerves in the capital. A U.S. official told CNN that the fighters didn't cause the plane to crash. The fate of the four people wasn't immediately released.

The drama unfolded when the Citation, which took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, for Long Island, made a U-turn over New York and flew directly over Washington at 34,000 feet about 3:20 p.m., prompting an emergency response even though the ceiling of the restricted airspace is 18,000 feet. “The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,” a NORAD statement said. The fighters intercepted the plane and used flares to get the Citation pilot's attention but did not get any response from the aircraft. The business jet crashed in the George Washington National Forest in southwest Virginia. It was registered to a car dealership in Melbourne, Florida.