![]() ![]() We were obviously freaked out a little bit," Chuck Martin, who felt the boom in Fairfax County, Virginia, told CNN affiliate WJLA. "The house rocked, the windows rattled, and it was done, like that. That means the jets were traveling faster than the speed of sound, creating shock waves that caused a sudden and resounding boom, startling some residents on the ground. The jets' extraordinary speed caused a sonic boom across the Washington, DC, area, officials said. The F-16s did not shoot down the aircraft, a US official told CNN, noting it is typical for the FAA to call in jets if someone is flying unsafely. The flight was cruising from East Tennessee to Long Island, New York, at 34,000 feet, an altitude where pilots have 30 to 60 seconds to don oxygen masks when pressure drops or risk falling unconscious.į-16 jets were "authorized to travel at supersonic speeds" as they raced to make contact with the aircraft, a Cessna 560 Citation V, according to the Continental US North American Aerospace Defense Command Region news release. Hypoxia is an insidious risk of flying at high altitude and could have been brought on by a decompression of the Cessna Citation jet's pressurized cabin, aviation experts say. The lone pilot and three passengers were aboard the Cessna Citation that crashed in a heavily wooded area near Waynesboro, Virginia, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.Īnother source told CNN that crash investigators are most interested in hypoxia - a shortage of oxygen in the blood - as a reason why the pilot and passengers didn't respond to attempts by air traffic controllers and even other civilian aircraft to contact the ill-fated plane. WASHINGTON - The pilot of the unresponsive private jet that triggered an interception by supersonic military fighter jets protecting Washington, DC, was observed slumped over in his seat, a source familiar with the response told CNN. F-16 fighter jets caused a sonic boom while investigating the unresponsive plane over DC. No survivors have been found from a Virginia plane crash. ![]()
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