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U.S. Air Force F-16 jets (archive image)
Photo: Ahn Young-joon / AP
A loud bang from two F-16 jet fighters on Sunday afternoon (local time) thrilled the population of Washington. According to the US authorities, the two fighter jets took off to intercept a small aircraft whose crew did not react.
Residents of the U.S. capital and suburbs had reported the deafening bang, which made windows and walls shake for many kilometers, and asked about the cause on online networks.
A U.S. Department of Defense official said the two jets were dispatched from the U.S. military base Joint Base Andrews to track a light aircraft designated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the Cessna Citation.
This had finally crashed in a mountainous area in southwest Virginia, which borders Washington. The U.S. Air Force says it did not shoot it down. Search teams are currently on their way to the crash site.
Flares didn't help either
According to the FAA, the private plane had taken off from Elizabethton in the state of Tennessee. The destination was Long Island in New York. However, flight tracking websites have shown that it has turned over its destination and flown south, over Washington or the surrounding area, to Virginia.
It crashed around 15:30 p.m. (local time, 21:30 p.m. CEST) near Montebello, according to the FAA. Initially, there was no information about the crew and passengers.
The North American Air Defense Command (Norad) said the two fighter jets had permission to fly at supersonic speeds. Therefore, residents of the region could have heard a sonic boom.
The pilots also tried to attract the pilot's attention with flares and make contact with him until the Cessna crashed. There was no danger to President Joe Biden at any time, the Secret Service said.
jok/AFP