On a quiet Sunday afternoon, some in DC were rattled when they heard the sonic boom of two F-16 jets. The jets were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds over the city because a Cessna aircraft flying a bizarre route was headed toward DC.
🚨 JUST IN: A DC-area resident captured the “explosion” sound on his home camera.
We now know the “explosion” was a sonic boom caused by fighter jets scrambled to intercept an unresponsive Cessna Citation jet overflying DC, which later crashed.
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 4, 2023
1) Capitol Security Posture Briefly Went from Green To Yellow Today Due to Errant Aircraft, Prior to Loud Boom Heard All Over Metro DC
From multiple Congressional sources..
There was what was termed an “AirCon” at the U.S. Capitol today.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 4, 2023
The Federal Aviation Administration reported that a Cessna Citation took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, with four people on board and was on its way to Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. However, the plane inexplicably made a U-turn over Long Island and flew directly over the nation’s capital, causing alarm for many nearby.
Experts now say the plane did the 180 due to the plane’s autopilot sometime after the pilot lost consciousness.
Reports have since confirmed that the plane crashed in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley with no survivors found.
The plane was registered to be owned by Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. out of Florida. The owner, John Rumpel, has since revealed that his daughter, 2-year-old grandchild, nanny, and the pilot were aboard on their way back to their East Hampton home in Long Island after visiting his house in North Carolina.
Four were aboard Cessna
John Rumpel told The New York Times his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, her nanny and the pilot were aboard the Cessna that crashed in Va., and were returning to their home on Long Island, after visiting him in North Carolina. https://t.co/6MIZEkaNse
— 7News DC (@7NewsDC) June 5, 2023
No official word on the exact cause of the crash has been released. However, authorities suggested that the plane could have loss pressurization. With this scenario, it is likely that the four passengers could have succumbed to conditions of the high-altitude air either before or after the plane crashed.
What’s raising eyebrows is that the Rumpels are big NRA and Trump donors.
In just 2020, the couple donated a combined $250,000 to the Trump Victory PAC and, in 2022, made sizeable donations to Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
To summarize, the daughter and granddaughter of one of Trump’s largest donors were in a plane that, upon almost reaching its destination, did a 180, heading near DC. Then the plane crashes in the mountains of Virginia.
