On June 4, 2023, a sonic boom was heard in the Washington, D.C., area. The sonic boom in Washington was caused by two F-16 fighter jets from Joint Base Andrews that were involved in the intercept of an unresponsive Cessna Citation private jet.
The aircraft – a privately owned Cessna 560 Citation V light jet – subsequently crashed in a mountainous region of southwest Virginia after it flew through a ‘no-fly’ zone, raising concerns and prompting the scrambling of two NORAD F-16 fighter aircraft from Joint Base Andrews.
The aircraft’s flight path had taken it close to both the White House and the U.S. Capitol.
The June 4 incident
The Cessna had entered restricted airspace near Washington, D.C., and the F-16s were scrambled to intercept it at around 3.20PM Eastern Time.
The Cessna pilot was not responding to hails from Air Traffic Control, and the F-16s were forced to use flares to try to attract the pilot’s attention.
The intercepting F-16 fighter jets had been “cleared supersonic to respond” to the Cessna which was reported to be ignoring radio queries, and flying on what was described as a “strange flight path” outside nation’s capital, officials said.
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The Cessna Citation jet eventually crashed near the George Washington National Forest in southwest Virginia. There were no survivors.
FAA statement
The FAA stated that the Cessna subsequently crashed near Staunton, Virginia. In a statement the US aviation regulator said:
“A Cessna Citation crashed into mountainous terrain in a sparsely populated area of south-west Virginia around 3 PM local time on June 4. The aircraft took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton Tennessee and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York.
Sonic boom heard
When an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound, it creates a shock wave that can be heard as a loud, explosive sound. The sonic boom from the F-16s was heard as far away as Baltimore, Maryland, and Richmond, Virginia.
The crash of the Cessna is still under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is looking into the cause of the crash, including whether the pilot’s unresponsiveness was due to a medical emergency or some other factor.
