6/5/23

A sonic boom  Sunday in the  D-C area was from fighter jets scrambled in response to an unresponsive aircraft.

The F-16s were authorized to intercept at hypersonic speeds around 3-20 yesterday afternoon, tracking the Cessna Citation aircraft until it crashed in the mountains of Nelson County, near Montebello.

The F-A-A says the craft, which was headed to Long Island, New York from Elizabethon, Tennessee, was not shot down by the jets.

Search and rescue teams reportedly reached the site of the crash some two miles south of the Blue Ridge Parkway around 8 o’clock last night.

Four people including the pilot were on board the plane – no survivors were located.