An explosion alarmed the citizens of a part of Washington D.C. and surroundings around three in the afternoon this Sunday (nine at night in Spain). The noise was due to the sonic explosion caused by fighters that the Pentagon deployed to pursue a private plane that, according to a version released by Reuters, may have violated the airspace of the US capital. Other versions indicated a possible emergency on board the aircraft.
The truth is that the jet, a Cessna Citation with a capacity to carry up to 12 passengers, ended up crashing into mountainous terrain in southwestern Virginia. It happened around the same time that one of the F-16s deployed by the military, specifically at Joint Base Andrews, broke through the sound barrier.
A US official pointed out that it was not the fighters that caused the Cessna crash. And a source quoted by the Reuters agency indicated that the jet was believed to be on autopilot and did not respond to attempts by authorities to contact it.
Numerous citizens of Washington, D.C., as well as northern Virginia and Maryland, posted messages on Twitter to report and ask about the explosion they heard just after three o'clock.
The private plane that caused the incident had taken off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport, Tennessee, and was heading to Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York. According to CNN, four people were on board.
The ABC chain indicated for its part that, before the outcome, the fighter aviators could see that the pilot of the Cessna they were chasing and watching had fainted.
