Add Category
The pilot of a business jet that flew over Washington DC before crashing in a remote part of Virginia appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive, according to three US officials.
Key points:
- US officials have begun investigating the fatal plane crash
- The White House expressed its "deepest condolences" to the family of those on board
- Friends and family have also paid tribute to the victims
The revelations came as federal investigators trudged through rugged terrain to reach the site where the plane slammed into a mountain on Sunday, killing four people.
The officials who said the fighter pilots saw the civilian pilot slumped over had been briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss details of the military operation.
The New York-bound plane took an erratic flight path — inexplicably turning around over Long Island to fly directly over the nation's capital — which prompted the military to scramble fighter jets. This caused a sonic boom heard in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.
Remote terrain around the crash site posed major challenges to the investigation.
It took investigators several hours to hike into the rural area near the community of Montebello, about 97 kilometres south-west of Charlottesville, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesperson Eric Weiss said. They expect to be at the scene for at least three to four days.
Speaking at a briefing on Monday morning, NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt said the wreckage was "highly fragmented" and investigators would examine the most delicate evidence at the site, after which the wreckage would be moved to Delaware, where it would be further examined.
The plane was not required to have a flight recorder but it was possible there were other avionics equipment investigators could examine, Mr Gerhardt said.
The Virginia State Police issued a statement saying because of the severity of the crash, the human remains would be transported to the state medical examiner's office for autopsy and identification.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the victims included the pilot and three passengers but it did not release their names. There were no survivors.
Where the plane went
Investigators will look at when the pilot became unresponsive and why the aircraft flew the path it did, Mr Gerhardt said.
A preliminary report will be released in 10 days.
According to a timetable released late on Monday by NTSB spokesperson Jennifer Gabris, the plane took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee at 1:13pm on Sunday, headed for MacArthur Airport in Long Island, New York. Air Traffic Control (ATC) lost communication with the airplane during its ascent.
Preliminary information indicates the last ATC communication attempt with the plane was at about 1:28 pm, when the plane was at 9,449 metres. The plane climbed to 10,363 kilometres, where it remained for the rest of the flight until 3:23pm when it began to descend and crashed about nine minutes later.
The plane was flying at 10,363 kilometres, when it flew over MacArthur Airport at 2:33pm, the NTSB said.
Fighter jet scramble was 'textbook response'
On Monday the White House expressed its "deepest condolences" to the family of those who were on board the plane.
"We need to keep them front and centre," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.
Mr Kirby deferred questions about a follow-up report on the security response over Washington airspace to the Pentagon and US Secret Service. But he said: "What I saw was just a classic, textbook response."
The White House was continuously informed as the military jets tried to contact the pilot of the civilian plane and monitored the small aircraft's path from Washington airspace to rural Virginia, Mr Kirby said.
Air Traffic Control audio from the half hour before the plane crashed captures voices that identify themselves as military pilots trying to communicate with the pilot of the private plane, according to recordings on LiveATC.net.
"If you hear this transmission, contact us," said one pilot who identifies herself as being with the Air National Guard.
Several minutes later, a military pilot says: "You have been intercepted. Contact me."
The plane flew directly over the nation's capital. According to the Pentagon, six F-16 fighter jets were immediately deployed to intercept the plane. Two aircraft from the 113th Fighter Wing, out of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, were the first to reach the Cessna Citation to begin attempts to contact the pilot. Two F-16 aircraft out of New Jersey and two from South Carolina also responded.
Flight-tracking sites showed the plane suffered a rapid spiralling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 9,144 metres per minute before crashing in the St Mary's Wilderness.
Friends and family pay tribute
The plane that crashed was registered to Encore Motors, based in Florida. John Rumpel, a pilot who runs the company, said his family was returning to their home in East Hampton, on Long Island, after visiting his house in North Carolina.
Mr Rumpel told the New York Times he did not have much information from authorities but suggested the plane could have lost pressurisation.
"It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed," Mr Rumpel told the newspaper.
In interviews with the Times and Newsday, Mr Rumpel identified his daughter Adina Azarian and two-year-old granddaughter Aria as two of the victims.
Ms Azarian, 49, was well known in real estate circles both in New York City and Long Island, described by friends and relatives as a fiercely competitive entrepreneur who started her own brokerage and was raising her daughter as a single parent.
"Being a mum was everything to her," Tara Brivic-Looper, a close friend who grew up with Ms Azarian, said
"That they were together [at the end] is fitting."
Friends say Ms Azarian moved to East Hampton full time to raise Aria, with the help of a nanny. But she made frequent trips back home, bringing both Aria and the nanny to meet her tight-knit extended family on multiple occasions.
"She seemed so happy out there," her cousin, Andrew Azarian, said.
"Both of their lives hadn't even started.
"How could this happen? No-one can explain it."
AP