A moment of chaos and confusion over the skies over Washington briefly panicked parts of the US capital on Sunday afternoon, June 4, when an F-16 fighter opened fire. sonic blast While chasing a private plane that was flying unattended and later crashed in Virginia.
According to reports, a fighter from Andrews Air Force Base, from which Air Force One usually takes off and where the president was at the time, was quickly dispatched to intercept the Cessna. He flew aimlessly. Control protocols for the US capital’s airspace were beefed up after the September 11 attacks.
In the afternoon, the Cessna pilot stopped communicating with the control tower. F-16 was used flares to try to alert youAround 15:20 local time. The private plane crashed at 3:30 p.m. in George Washington National Park in Virginia, and was not shot down by the military.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Cessna took off from Tennessee and was headed to New York. Unexpectedly, the plane flew over Long Island, in New York itself, and flew directly over Washington before crashing.
During the attacks of September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Another flight, United Airlines 93, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania thanks to a riot by passengers instead of making it to Washington.
This Sunday, the fighter received permission to Flying faster than the speed of sound. A sonic boom is the noise produced when an object travels faster than the speed of sound, breaking the sound barrier and creating an audible shock wave. The rumble in Washington was similar to the sound of thunder, but it happened on a clear day in the capital.
Police said that following the explosion at 3:10 p.m., the Capitol complex was on high alert for a brief period. There was no session day, so there were no evacuations. president, Joe BidenHe was golfing at the same base as Andrews when the fighter took off.
According to public flight records disclosed by the AP, the plane that crashed was registered to Encore Motors, a company based in Florida. On the plane, the owner, John Rampell, told The Washington Post on the phone His daughter and grandson were traveling.
because of Bad weather In the mountainous area where the plane crashed, recovery of the plane’s wreckage will not be completed until Monday.
