On June 4, 2023, a privately operated

Cessna 560 Citation V The Cessna Citation V is a business jet built by Cessna. A stretched version of the Citation S/II, a Model 560 prototype flew in August 1987, it was certified on December 9, 1988, and delivered from April 1989; were delivered until 2011. The ...

carrying three passengers and a pilot crashed at approximately 3:23p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) in the George Washington National Forest, Virginia, killing the occupants, after the crew had been found unresponsive.Page 2: "According to a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) statement, about 1520 the airplane was intercepted by fighter aircraft." The plane had previously entered the no-fly zone over Washington, D.C., and was intercepted by F-16 fighter jets before it crashed. A preliminary report was released by the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

on June 21, 2023, and the investigation into the crash is ongoing as of August 2023.

Accident

The plane involved in the accident was a

, registered N611VG to Encore Motors of Melbourne, a Florida-based company under the ownership of John and Barbara Rumpel. It departed from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in

Elizabethton Elizabethton is a city in, and the county seat of Carter County, Tennessee, United States. Elizabethton is the historical site of the first independent American government (known as the Watauga Association, created in 1772) located west of both th ...

, Tennessee, at approximately 1:15p.m. EDT, bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport (ICAO: KISP) in New York. According to an NTSB spokesman, fifteen minutes after takeoff, air traffic control instructed the pilot to maintain altitude at , but he did not respond. The plane continued climbing until reaching a cruising altitude of and proceeded to fly on the correct bearing to land at MacArthur Airport. After reaching

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, the plane followed the correct flight path to line up for the runway, but failed to initiate its descent on approach, maintaining its altitude and continuing past the airport on the same heading as the runway alignment. The flight continued on until it entered the restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. The

U.S. Capitol complex The United States Capitol Complex is a group of twenty buildings and facilities ( complex of buildings) in Washington, D.C., that are used by the federal government of the United States. The buildings and grounds within the complex are managed an ...

was placed on "elevated alert" when the plane flew over the restricted airspace as reported by the

U.S. Capitol Police The United States Capitol Police (USCP) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States with nationwide jurisdiction charged with protecting the United States Congress within the District of Columbia and throughout the United States an ...

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

deployed six F-16 fighter jets to intercept the plane.

Interception and crash

The Cessna was intercepted at approximately 3:20p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Two F-16 jets from the

113th Wing The 113th Wing, known as the "Capital Guardians", is a unit of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, stationed at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. If activated to federal service, the fighter portion of the Wing is gained by the United State ...

Joint Base Andrews Joint Base Andrews (JBA) is a United States military facility located in Prince George's County, Maryland. The facility is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force 316th Wing, Air Force District of Washington (AFDW). The base was e ...

engaged in supersonic flight over the capital region, were the first to reach the Cessna, and attempted to contact the pilot. They used flares to draw the Cessna pilot's attention, although the plane's pilot was unresponsive. The flight continued on, flying past Washington, D.C., and entering the state of Virginia, until crashing at approximately 3:30p.m. EDT. Tracking data from

FlightAware FlightAware is an American multi-national technology company that provides real-time, historical, and predictive flight tracking data and products. , it is the world's largest flight tracking platform, with a network of over 32,000 ADS-B gro ...

indicated that the plane flew over Washington, D.C., at an altitude of . The plane crashed near Montebello, Virginia, on the north face of Mine Bank Mountain at an elevation of , in the vicinity of the Mine Bank Creek Trail in the George Washington National Forest. Vegetation damage and crater at the site of the crash indicated fast, near-vertical descent.

Passengers and crew

The FAA confirmed four people died as a result of the crash. According to initial reports from '' The New York Times'', John Rumpel's daughter, granddaughter, her nanny, as well as the pilot were on board the plane during the crash. By June 10 the identities of three of those onboard were known: pilot Jeff Hefner, passengers Adina Azarian and Aria Azarian (age 2). In an interview, John Rumpel, who was not aboard at the time of the accident, said that the Cessna "descended at 20,000 feet a minute".

Aftermath and investigation

First responders who were notified of the crash at 3:50p.m. EDT reported that no survivors were found in the wreckage. CNN reported that the plane left a "crater", leading responders to believe that it impacted the ground at a very steep angle. A preliminary report was released by the

on June 21, 2023, and the investigation into the crash is ongoing as of August 2023.

Cause

The owner of the aircraft has speculated that the crash may have been caused by

hypoxia Hypoxia means a lower than normal level of oxygen, and may refer to: Reduced or insufficient oxygen * Hypoxia (environmental), abnormally low oxygen content of the specific environment * Hypoxia (medical), abnormally low level of oxygen in the tis ...

resulting from the loss of cabin pressure, rendering the passengers and the pilot unconscious. U.S. officials said that the intercept pilots had seen the Cessna's pilot "passed out" at the controls. The NTSB's preliminary report says that the voice recorder has not been located.Page 3: "According to recent maintenance inspection records, the airplane as of May 2023 was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR), however, at the time of this publication, a CVR had not been located. The airplane was not equipped with a flight data recorder, nor was it required to be." The jet was intercepted by fighter aircraft at about 3:20p.m. EDT. Two minutes later it went into a right spiral into the terrain.

Notes

References

External links

Flight path of the plane from Plane Finder
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virginia plane crash, 2023 Plane crash 2023 in Washington, D.C. June 2023 events in the United States Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2023 Aviation accidents and incidents in Virginia Accidents and incidents involving the Cessna Citation family 2023 plane crash Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot incapacitation Airliner accidents and incidents caused by fuel exhaustion