Windows trembled and the earth shook: Washington residents were frightened by a powerful explosion in the sky due to fighter jets raised on alarm

The loud noise that was heard across much of Washington, DC on June 4 afternoon was caused by the sound wave of military fighter jets. They took to the air to respond to a private flight intrusion into restricted airspace, reports NewYorkTimes.

Photo: IStock

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which oversees aerospace control over the United States and Canada, said in a statement that two F-16 fighter jets were deployed on June 4 after a Cessna 560 Citation V private jet flew over Washington and Northern Virginia.

Two fighter jets were dispatched from Joint Base Andrews after the Cessna entered restricted airspace, prompting emergency action to intercept the flight, officials confirmed on June 4. A private jet owner said in a telephone interview that there were four people on the plane, including his daughter and granddaughter.

After the Cessna entered the restricted area, which includes important national landmarks, the Federal Aviation Administration tried to contact the pilot of the plane but received no response, and the military ordered the planes to intercept him, a military official said.

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Officials later determined that the Cessna aircraft did not pose a threat, and it remains to be seen why the pilot did not respond to the FAA's request. According to official figures, the Cessna was not shot down.

The Cessna crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, according to NORAD, although the FAA said in an earlier statement that it "crashed into mountainous terrain in an outback area of ​​southwestern Virginia" near Montebello around 15:30 p.m.

A spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police said on June 5 that about four hours after receiving the report of the plane crash, rescuers were able to reach the crash site on foot. No survivors were found.

NORAD stated that the fighters "were allowed to fly at supersonic speeds", which should have caused a hum that was heard in the region and was reportedly heard even in the suburbs of Virginia and Maryland. The agency said the NORAD aircraft also used flares that could be seen from the ground "in an attempt to get the pilot's attention."

What is known about the plane and passengers

The plane, a private business jet, was owned by Encore Motors of Melbourne, a Florida-based company. By phone, John Rumpel, 75, who runs the company, said his daughter, his two-year-old granddaughter, her nanny and the pilot were on board. He said they were returning home to East Hampton, New York, after a four-day visit to his home in North Carolina. The plane took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, New York. For unexplained reasons, the plane turned over New York's Long Island and flew right over D.C. before crashing.

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Rumpel, who is also a pilot, said he had little information about the circumstances of the crash. In a broken voice, he said that if the plane had depressurized, then "they would all just fall asleep and never wake up."

"It was going down at 600m a minute and no one could survive a crash at that speed," Mr Rumple said.

The crash is under investigation. The Cessna Citation, bound for Long Island Airport, took off from Tennessee at 13:13 p.m., according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Loud noise

Shortly after the incident, people reported on social media that they had heard a loud rumble in Washington, as well as in Maryland and Northern Virginia. Many said that the sound was like an explosion, and some said that the roar was so strong that it shook their houses.

Sonic boom is caused by an object moving faster than sound, or about 1200 km per hour.

The noise from the fighter jets has frightened people in the Washington area, and many have taken to social media to talk about what might have caused it.

Rafael Olivieri, 62, said he was at home in Annandale, Virginia, when he heard a "loud, very short sound" that shook his house. Olivieri ran outside, where his neighbors were also trying to figure out what happened. “My first thing was to look at the sky,” he said. “I got really excited.”

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More than 48 km to the northeast, in Edgewater, Maryland, 47-year-old Joseph Kriegel also felt the noise. He said he was in his basement just after 15:00 pm when the whole house was shaking. “It looked like something serious,” Kriegel said.

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