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 civilian Cessna jet with an unresponsive pilot overflew restricted airspace above Washington D.C., triggering an intercept by NORAD fighter jets.
The military jets generated a sonic boom while attempting to establish contact with the uncommunicative aircraft, which then entered a steep spiraling descent.
The aircraft crashed in rural Virginia, killing all four occupants, including the owner's daughter, granddaughter, and their nanny.
Authorities, including the FAA and NTSB, are investigating the cause of the pilot's unresponsiveness and the subsequent crash, while the article outlines NORAD's protocol for such airspace violations.

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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.