Investigation Underway After Citation Encore Intercepted in Washington

Fighter jets scrambled over D.C. before the private airplane went down in northern Virginia on June 4.

Monday, June 05, 2023 at 12:12 PM ET

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The presence of the unauthorized aircraft triggered North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to scramble F-16s out of Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. [Courtesy: US Air Force]

Key Takeaways:

A Cessna 560 Citation V Encore with an unresponsive pilot overflew Washington D.C.'s restricted airspace, prompting NORAD to scramble fighter jets for an intercept.
Military F-16s generated a sonic boom while attempting to establish contact with the uncommunicative Cessna, which subsequently entered a steep spiraling descent and crashed in rural Virginia.
All four occupants of the civilian aircraft – the owner's daughter, granddaughter, nanny, and pilot – were killed in the crash.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the pilot's unresponsiveness, while experts clarified that intercept protocols prioritize communication and rarely involve shooting down an aircraft due to ground safety concerns.

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Authorities are trying to determine what caused the pilot of a Cessna 560 Citation V Encore to become unresponsive and overfly the nation’s capital Sunday afternoon, triggering an intercept by military fighter jets.

The presence of the unauthorized aircraft triggered North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to scramble six fighter jets in pairs, from air bases in Maryland, New Jersey and South Carolina, a command spokesperson at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida told FLYING. The two F-16s that deployed from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland reached the Cessna first, resulting in a sonic boom as the military jet closed on the wayward civilian jet.