White House on alert after 2 aviation incidents

developing story out of our nation's capital late this afternoon the Washington D.C metropolitan area was rocked by a loud noise a sonic boom from DC Air National Guard fighter jets that boom could be heard and felt across the region and was captured on this doorbell camera those f-16s were scrambled to investigate an aircraft that was not responding as it flew over the D.C area the Air National Guard planes took off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland around the same time a small civilian jet aircraft crashed in the mountainous region of Southwest Virginia one official tells ABC news they now know the pilot of that plane had passed out coincidentally President Biden and his brother were golfing at Joint Base Andrews at the time ABC's Jay O'Brien is tracking the developments and leads us off tonight from Washington D.C tonight a U.S official tells ABC news that two Aviation incidents jolting the nation's capital tonight are connected one a piercing sonic boom heard over a large portion of the DC area and Beyond surprising residents the other the crash of a small civilian jet in rural Southwest Virginia tonight a U.S official tells ABC news that two D.C Air National Guard f-16s were scrambled to investigate an unresponsive aircraft that was flying a strange flight path over the D.C area and was not responding to radio communications a U.S official telling ABC News the pilot of the civilian aircraft was passed out and the aircraft crashed in a mountainous area near Montebello Virginia around 3 30 PM local time our friends have been surprised with a total of four passengers sources tell ABC News the White House and the capitol both put on alert as radar tracked the unresponsive aircraft the Secret Service also monitoring the f-16s scrambling from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland where President Biden was golfing this afternoon just 10 miles outside the capitol according to the FAA the plane took off from a municipal airport in Northeast Tennessee bound from MacArthur Airport on New York's Long Island the flight path showing the plane never landed instead turning right back around headed south before crashing in Virginia the f-16s scrambling at supersonic speeds creating the sonic boom really some harrowing moments there Jay O'Brien joins us now live in Washington on this breaking story Jay what else are we learning Lindsey NORAD confirming tonight that boom was created by Jets going top speeds trying to catch up with that aircraft and that flares were also used to try to get the Pilot's attention tonight the FAA and the NTSB both investigating that Cessna crash and D.C officials saying that there is no threat to the public Lindsay Jay thank you and we want to get straight to ABC News contributor Colonel Steve ganyard how does something like this happen yeah Lindsay it appears to be a case of hypoxia hypoxia is when a loss of consciousness occurs when there's not enough oxygen in the cabin so we know that this happened in the case of Payne Stewarts tragically several years ago the pressurization in the aircraft should keep enough oxygen in the cabin to stay alert and stay awake in this case it can happen insidiously where you lose Consciousness you begin to feel tingling you get a sense of euphoria and it very very slowly overcomes the people in the in the cabin so very sad but it does seem to be when the F-16 joined up the pilot was passed out at the controls hypoxia is the most likely problem of course we'll continue to learn more Steve we thank you so much for your Insight hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

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Keywords: abc, alert, area, aviation, crash, house, incidents, mountainous, news, out, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-99829530, passed, pilot, virginia, white, wnt, world

Id: JBHm62J3XTk

Length: 3min 52sec (232 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 05 2023