The pilot of the business jet that flew over Washington and crashed in Virginia appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive, the fighter jet pilots reported, according to three US officials briefed on the matter. The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity. Authorities say four people were killed in the crash in a remote part of Virginia Sunday. The identities of the four people weren’t immediately released. Federal investigators say it will take a few days to solve the mystery of why the plane veered off course and slammed into a mountain.
The pilot of a business jet that flew over Washington and crashed in a remote part of Virginia appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive, three U.S. officials said Monday, recounting observations by fighter pilots who intercepted the wayward flight.
The revelations came as federal investigators trudged through rugged terrain to reach the site where the plane slammed into a mountain Sunday, killing four people. The officials who said that 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 authorized to discuss details of the military operation.
The plane’s owner told news outlets that his daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter were aboard.
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 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Charlottesville, said NTSB spokesperson Eric Weiss. They expect to be on the scene for at least three to four days.
Speaking at a briefing Monday morning, NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt said the wreckage is “highly fragmented” and investigators will examine the most delicate evidence at the site, after which the wreckage will be moved, perhaps by helicopter, to Delaware, where it can be further examined. The plane is not required to have a flight recorder but it is possible that there are other avionics equipment that will have data that they can examine, Gerhardt said.
The Virginia State Police issued a statement saying that because of the severity of the crash, human remains will be transported to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsy and identification.
