Before it crashed in Virginia, the military was informed due to the aircraft’s unusual track toward Washington and sonic boom.
According to three US government sources who described the findings of the fighter pilots after claimed intercepted the erratic flying, the private plane’s captain looked to have slumped on the dashboard and was unconscious before it crashed in a rural area of Virginia over the weekend.
The information was discovered when federal investigators trudged over difficult terrain to reach the wreckage of the Cessna Citation crash that claimed four lives on Sunday.
The officials, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to disclose specifics of a military operation, had been informed on the situation.
The owner of the jet revealed to the media that his daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter were traveling on it.
The plane, which was its route to New York, took an unusual course, mysteriously hovering above Long Island before descending on the nation’s capital, causing the military to send in fighter jets. That caused the sonic boom that was audible throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Washington.
The inquiry was significantly hampered by the accident’s distant location.
According to Eric Weiss, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB, for short), it took investigators several hours to walk to the rural region close to Montebello, some 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Charlottesville.
They want to spend at least three to four days at the crash site.
At a press conference on Monday, NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt stated that the debris is “highly fragmented” and that the most sensitive evidence would be examined there before the wreckage is taken, potentially by helicopter, to Delaware where more thorough study can be performed.
WATCH: Sonic boom heard over DC captured on videopic.twitter.com/GqTeNw3JbJ
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Although the plane was not obliged to carry a flight recorder, Gerhardt said that other avionics teams may have data they may review.
Due to the seriousness of the event, the state coroner’s office will receive the human remains for autopsy and identification, according to a statement from the Virginia State Police.
The pilot and three passengers were among the casualties, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which did not provide their identities.
There were no survivors.
According to Gerhardt, investigators will look at the moment the pilot passed out as well as the reasons the plane chose that course.
According to him, they will consider a number of elements that are examined in these kinds of investigations, including the plane, its engines, the weather, the credentials of the pilot, and maintenance records.
In ten days, a preliminary report will be made public.
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