They investigate why a plane that flew over Washington diverted and crashed into a mountain

Federal investigators delved into rugged terrain in the eastern United States Monday in search of plane wreckage to solve the mystery of why the plane veered off course and crashed into a mountain, killing two four people.

A day after the plane flew over the nation’s capital, forcing the military to send in fighter jets, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a brief statement that the pilot and three passengers had been killed and that the plane had been “destroyed” in the accident. Their identities were not immediately released.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator Adam Gerhardt told reporters that investigators will take time to reach the crash site, located about two miles north of Montebello in hilly terrain. They expect to be in place at least three or four days.

Attention to the crash and its cause was heightened by its unusual flight path over Washington and a sonic boom caused by military aircraft that was heard over Washington DC and parts of Maryland and Virginia. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement that military aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds, which triggered the sonic boom. The plane also used flares to try to get the pilot’s attention.

At a briefing Monday morning, Gerhardt said the remains are “highly fragmented” and that investigators will examine the most sensitive evidence at the crash site, after which the remains will be flown, perhaps by helicopter, to Delaware. , where they can be examined, he said. The plane was not required to have a flight recorder, but it may and there are other avionics teams that will have data they can examine, Gerhardt said.

The researchers will study when the pilot became unresponsive and why the plane followed the trajectory it did, he explained. They will take into account several factors that are typically examined in these types of surveys, such as the plane, its engines, weather conditions, pilot qualifications and maintenance records, he said.

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