A sonic boom resounded in Washington Sunday as two fighter jets sought to intercept an unresponsive plane before it crashed in the US state of Virginia, officials told AFP.
Residents of the US federal capital and its environs reported hearing a thunderous noise that shook windows and walls for miles around and sparked many questions on social networks.
The two fighters took off from Air Force Base Andrews in Maryland, a Pentagon official told AFP, joining a device the US Civil Aviation Authority (FAA) described as a Cessna Citation light aircraft that then crashed in a mountainous area in southwest Virginia.
The plane took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee (east), to arrive in Long Island, New York State (northeast), according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Flight tracking websites showed the private plane’s return after arriving at its destination, heading south.
“The loud noise heard in the Washington metro area was caused by a flight authorized by the Department of Defense. This flight caused a hypersonic boom,” the Office of Emergency Management in Annapolis, located about 50 kilometers east of the federal capital, said on Twitter.
The FAA reported that the plane the fighters were trying to intercept crashed near Montebello, Virginia, about 270 km southwest of Washington, at around 3:30 pm local time (1930 GMT).
No information has yet been disclosed about the pilot and any passengers on board.
Initial information will be released soon by the FAA and North American Aerospace Defense Command.
