washington the united states scrambled f16 fighter jets in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that violated airspace in the washington dc area and later crashed into the mountains of virginia officials saidthe jet fighters prompted a sonic boom over the us capital in an attempt to pursue with the errant cessna citation officials said causing consternation among people in the washington areafour people were on board the cessna a source familiar with the matter said a cessna citation can carry seven to 12 passengersthe cessna was registered to encore motors of melbourne florida according to the flighttracking website flight awareencore owner john rumpel told the washington post his daughter a grandchild and her nanny were on boardwe know nothing about the crash the post quoted rumpel as saying we are talking to the faa now he added before ending the callthe us military attempted to establish contact with the pilot who was unresponsive until the cessna subsequently crashed near the george washington national forest in virginia the north american aerospace defense command norad said in a statementthe cessna appeared to be flying on autopilot another source familiar the matter saidthe norad aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region the statement said adding that norad aircraft also used flares in an attempt to draw attention from the pilota us official said the jet fighters did not cause the crashthe cessna took off from elizabethton municipal airport in elizabethton tennessee and was bound for long island macarthur airport in new york about 50 miles 80 km east of manhattan the faa said in a statement adding that it and the national transportation safety board would investigateaccording to flight aware the plane appeared to reach the new york area and made nearly a 180degree turn with the flight ending in virginiavirginia state police said they were searching for the wreckage but had yet to find itwhile rare incidents involving unresponsive pilots are not unprecedented golfer payne stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the aircraft he was in streaked across thousands of miles with the pilot and passengers unresponsive the plane eventually crashed in south dakota with no survivorsin the case of stewarts flight the plane lost pressure causing the occupants to lose consciousness because of oxygen deprivationsimilarly a small us private plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed off the east coast of jamaica in 2014 after veering far off its course toward southwest florida and triggering a us security alert that prompted a fighter jet escorton sunday the sonic boom rattled many people in the washington area who took to twitter to report hearing a loud noise that shook the ground and walls several residents said they heard the noise as far away as northern virginia and maryland