Pilot Seen Slumped Over Before Deadly Crash In VA: Report

VIRGINIA — The pilot of a military jet that sent to intercept an unresponsive private plane flying over the D.C. area saw the aircraft’s pilot slumped over, sources told The Washington Post. The plane crashed in rural Virginia, killing all four people on board, including a mother, her 2-year-old child, the nanny and the pilot.

Experts said flight data suggests the pilot might have fallen unconscious due to a loss of pressurization and that the plane was flying on autopilot until it ran out of fuel, the Post reported.

The plane, a Cessna 560 Citation V owned by a Florida businessman, crashed in the mountains in the George Washington National Forest near Washington, D.C. Sunday, according to reports.

The plane, which had taken off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was headed for MacArthur Airport on Long Island, was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, a Florida-based company owned by John and Barbara Rumpel, aviation records show.

John Rumpel, the owner of the plane, told the Post that his "entire family" was on board, including his daughter, a grandchild, and her nanny. Rumpel told the paper his daughter and granddaughter were returning home to East Hampton after visiting his house in North Carolina.

The fighter jets' attempt to intercept the plane caused a loud sonic boom which was heard by residents from Annapolis and Bowie, Maryland, to Woodbridge, Arlington and Fairfax, Virginia shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday.

Flight tracking sites showed the jet suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing in the St. Mary's Wilderness.

Early Monday, Virginia State Police returned to the plane crash site in Augusta County, along with a National Transportation Safety Board representative, to begin evidence collection and body recovery efforts. A state police news release said the Cessna that crashed in a densely wooded, remote, mountainous area of Augusta County, near the Nelson County line. The scene is more than a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Human remains collected at the crash site will be taken to the Office of the Virginia Medical Examiner for examination, autopsy and positive identification. Once positive identification is made and next of kin is notified, the Virginia State Police will release the identities of the crash victims.

The crash site is located 300 feet below the peak of a mountain, the Staunton News Leader reported.

"[The plane] descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed," Rumpel told The New York Times.

F-16 jets from Joint Base Andrews were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds to intercept the Cessna after it came into a no-fly zone in the D.C. area, North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

NORAD said the jet was intercepted around 3:20 p.m. but the plane subsequently crashed into mountainous terrain southwest of Charlottesville.

Data from flight tracking service Flightradar24 shows the plane reaching Long Island before turning around and flying over D.C. and into Virginia, according to the Post.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter it was investigating the crash and will arrive at the scene Monday to begin “the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft.”

A couple was recording a song on their iPhone when the boom shook their house in Virginia. Another D.C. area resident said she had just started recording a video when she heard the boom.

Fans attending the Washington Nationals game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Nationals Park in Southeast D.C. reported hearing the boom.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.