Sonic boom rattles Washington as fighter jets chase Cessna

WASHINGTON

A sonic boom that echoed over Washington Sunday was caused by two fighter jets scrambling to intercept an unresponsive aircraft that later crashed in rural Virginia, officials told AFP.

Residents of the city and its suburbs reported hearing the thundering noise, which rattled windows and shook walls for miles and caused social media to light up with people asking what had happened.

The F-16 fighter jets "responded to an unresponsive Cessna 560 Citation V aircraft over Washington, DC, and northern Virginia," the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.

The two jets were scrambled from Joint Base Andrews, a Pentagon official told AFP, and they followed the aircraft that subsequently crashed in a mountainous area of southwest Virginia, one of the states bordering Washington.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident, a White House official told journalists, but did not specify whether any emergency precautions were implemented due to the incident.

Biden was in the region Sunday, spending time at the White House and playing golf, before going out for dinner.

The civilian plane had taken off from Elizabethton, Tennessee and was bound for Long Island, New York, the FAA said.

"The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region," the command said in its statement.

They also used flares to try to draw the pilot's attention, which may have been visible from the ground.

The unresponsive aircraft crashed near Montebello, Virginia, some 170 miles southwest of the nation's capital at around 3:30 pm (1930 GMT), the FAA said.

NORAD said it had attempted to make contact with the pilot until the plane crashed, intercepting it at approximately 3:20 pm.

Multiple US media reported the military did not shoot down the plane.

No information was immediately available about the pilot or who was on board.

As far away as Annapolis, Maryland some 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Washington, the city's Office of Emergency Management quelled residents' fears, writing on Twitter that the noise "was caused by an authorized DOD flight. This flight caused a sonic boom."

The White House official said the "sound resulting from the authorized DOD aircraft was faint" as far away as Joint Base Andrews, a 35-minute drive from the city.

Sonic booms occur when an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound. They can be a major nuisance, capable of not just startling people on the ground but also causing damage, like shattered windows.