Investigations will begin on Monday at the scene where a private plane crashed on Sunday in the southwestern US state of Virginia.
The plane caused security concerns at the Pentagon as it moved through a restricted area near Washington DC, and several Air Force fighter jets were dispatched to intercept it.
Neither military aircraft nor air traffic controllers managed to make contact with the plane before it crashed around 3:30 p.m. US time.
No survivors were found in the wreckage.
No more unanswered questions
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the incident. The agency said on Monday that two main questions remain unanswered for the moment:
- When did the pilot of the plane stop responding to outside contact?
- Why did the plane move above the restricted area?
– It will definitely be part of this investigation, NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt told reporters near the crash site, according to Reuters.
The plane took off from Elizabethton Municipal in Tennessee and was actually heading to Long Island MacArthur in New York.
THE SCENE: Police secure the entrance to the mountainous area where the private plane crashed on Sunday afternoon. Photo: Randall K. Wolf via AP/NTB
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The agency currently has no clear assumptions as to what may have happened.
– Basically everything is on the table – the plane, the engines, the weather conditions, the pilot’s qualifications, the maintenance – we will of course look at all these aspects, says Gerhardt
He describes the wreckage of the plane as “very fragmented” and the crash site as “very difficult”.
lost the family
Residents of the US capital could hear detonations on Sunday as fighter jets broke the sound barrier in pursuit of the private jet.
They were instructed to fly at supersonic speed.
Unnamed officials tell several US media outlets that fighter jets did not cause the plane crash.
The private plane, a Cessna 560 Citation V, was reportedly cut off around 3:20 p.m., before crashing near George Washington National Forest ten minutes later.
Four people were reportedly on board.
John Rumpel, owner of the company with which the plane is registered, informs Washington Post that her daughter, her grandson and their nanny were among them.
Avisa wrote that a preliminary report on the plane crash is expected in three weeks. The final report, which will conclude on the cause of the accident, will probably arrive in a year at the earliest.
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