By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Investigators plan to finish on-site investigations on Wednesday of the crash site of the light plane in southwest Virginia that caused a security scare Sunday when it flew over heavily restricted airspace near Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that four people, including the pilot of the Cessna Session 560, were killed when it crashed in a mountainous, wooded area. The Department of Defense scrambled F-16 fighter jets, making a sonic boom over the US capital as they chased a Cessna.
The NTSB released an image late Tuesday of the crash site with fragments of debris. Investigators are working on a plan to recover the wreckage to determine what kind of equipment is needed. “During the next phase of the investigation, investigators will analyze manufacturing and maintenance records and conduct interviews,” the NTSB said.
Air traffic controllers lost contact shortly after takeoff with the pilot Sunday after the Cessna took off from Elizabethton, Tenn., at 1:13 p.m. EST (1713 GMT) bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport, officials said Monday. about 50 miles (80 km) away. East Manhattan. Controllers lost contact with the aircraft as it climbed.
Air traffic control’s last attempted contact with the plane was around 1:28 p.m
The FAA said it reported the pilot’s failure to respond to controllers to the local event network that includes military, security, and law enforcement agencies at approximately 1:36 p.m.
White House spokesman John Kirby (NYSE) defended the military’s response Wednesday when asked why it took the fighters more than 90 minutes to intercept the plane from the last FAA communication, saying the military “responded in a very scripted way here.”
Officials said the plane appeared to be operating on autopilot. The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane was at 31,000 feet and eventually climbed to 34,000 feet, where it remained until 3:23 p.m. when it began descending. The plane crashed around 3:32 p.m
Military pilots attempted to contact the unresponsive pilot and also used flares in an attempt to get the pilot’s attention.
The incident is reminiscent of other accidents involving unresponsive pilots. Golfer Payne Stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the plane he was in flew thousands of miles with no response from the pilot and passengers. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota with no survivors.
In the case of Stewart’s flight, the plane lost cabin pressure, causing passengers to pass out from a lack of oxygen.