A sonic boom heard across Washington, D.C., on Sunday was the result of a fighter jet investigating an aircraft in a restricted area, according to U.S. officials.
An unresponsive business Cessna 560 Citation V plane was flying over D.C. and northern Virginia, causing the military to scramble a F-16 fighter jet, which was traveling "at supersonic speeds" and is what led to the sonic boom sound, the North American Aerospace Defense Command confirmed.
"The civilian aircraft was intercepted at approximately 3:20 p.m. Eastern Time. The pilot was unresponsive, and the Cessna subsequently crashed near the George Washington National Forest, Virginia," NORAD said in a statement to Scripps News.
Officials attempted to establish contact with the pilot, even using flares to get the pilot’s attention before the plane crashed. It's unclear who was on board of the plane and why nobody was responding.
According to reports, a White House official said President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident.
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