An unresponsive plane was intercepted on Sunday while it was flying over Washington, DC, by US fighter jets traveling at supersonic speed.
Some locals were concerned after hearing the F-16 jets' loud sonic boom, which was audible throughout the area.
They were sent in after the aircraft entered some of the most strictly regulated airspace in the nation and did not heed commands from the authorities.
Then, after a quick descent, it crashed in a rural Virginia area.
A few hours later, police and rescuers reported there were no survivors when they arrived at the scene near the George Washington National Forest. Apparently, there were four passengers.
It is unclear what rendered the pilot inattentive or what brought the Cessna Citation light aircraft to a stop. According to military officials who spoke on the record under the condition of anonymity, neither the fighter jets nor the object were shot down.
US aviation authorities reported that the aircraft departed Elizabethtown, Tennessee, at 13:14 local time on Sunday and was en route to Long Island, New York.
However, according to flight tracking information, the pilot turned around after reaching Long Island and flew over Washington instead. Near Virginia's Montebello, the flight data comes to an end at about 15:30.
According to reports, Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. of Florida was the owner of the private aircraft. Owner of the company John Rumpel, 75, told the New York Times that the plane also had his daughter, his granddaughter who was two years old, and her nanny.
They had been traveling from his North Carolina home to New York, he claimed. Nobody could survive a crash at that speed, Mr. Rumpel said: "It descended at 20,000 feet per minute.".
At the time, according to officials, President Joe Biden received a briefing on the incident. The fighter jets took off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland while he was there playing golf.
