Owner of plane that crashed near U.S. capital says his family was on board
The owner of the aircraft which crashed this Sunday near Washington DC (USA) after armed forces aircraft tried unsuccessfully to establish contact with the pilot has told several media outlets that his family was on board.
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). is investigating the causes that led to the private Cessna-brand aircraft crashing at around 15.30 local time (19.30 GMT) in a “mountainous area” near Montebello, Virginia.
According to The New York Timesthe aircraft was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne and was registered to its owner, John Rumpel, 75 years oldtold the newspaper that on board were his daughter, a 2-year-old granddaughter and her nanny, who were returning to their home in East Hampton (New York) after a family visit in North Carolina.
The FAA said the plane was bound for MacArthur Airport on Long Island, the area of New York state where East Hampton is located, and had departed from the city of Elizabethton, in the state of Tennessee, neighboring North Carolina to the south of the country.
Rumpel also told The Washington Post who was in contact with the FAA, has claimed that his “entire family” was on the plane and has lamented that “no one could survive” given the rate of descent before crashing.
Virginia State Police told the local station. WFXR this Sunday that search efforts were underwaybut weather conditions were bad.
The plane flew over Washington and Virginia and was intercepted by F-16 fighter jets.which flew at supersonic speeds and used flares to attract the pilot’s attention without his responding, reported the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
The supersonic roar of fighter jets. caught the attention of residents of the Washington DC metropolitan area, but authorities reported shortly thereafter that. there was no active threat and that the noise came from a flight “authorized by the Department of Defense.”
