Plane pilot who crashed in Virginia was unconscious and had gone off course

The pilot of a private plane that flew over Washington and crashed in a remote part of Virginia appeared to have collapsed on the dashboard and appeared unconscious, three US federal officials said Monday, recounting the observations of the pilots of the fighters that intercepted. the erratic airplane

The revelations come as federal investigators trekked into rugged terrain to reach the scene where the Cessna Citation crashed into a mountain Sunday, killing four people.

The officials had been briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of a military operation.

The plane’s owner told the media that his daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter were on board the aircraft.

The plane, which was headed for New York, took an erratic trajectory — inexplicably circling over Long Island to head toward the nation’s capital — prompting the military to deploy their fighters. That generated the sonic boom heard over Washington, Maryland, and Virginia.

The remote area where the accident occurred posed enormous obstacles to the investigation. It took investigators several hours to walk to the rural area near the community of Montebello, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Charlottesville, said Eric Weiss, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). , for its acronym in English). They plan to stay at the crash site for at least three to four days.

NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt told a news conference Monday that the wreckage is “highly fragmented” and investigators will examine the most sensitive evidence at the crash site before the wreckage is flown, possibly by helicopter, to Delaware. where further analysis can be carried out. The plane was not required to have a flight recorder, but there may be other avionics teams that have data they can examine, Gerhardt said.

The Virginia State Police issued a statement stating that due to the severity of the accident, human remains will be transported to the state coroner’s service for autopsy and identification. The Federal Aviation Administration said the victims included the pilot and three passengers, but did not release their names. There were no survivors.

Investigators will look into when the pilot lost consciousness and why the aircraft took that trajectory, Gerhardt said. They will take into account several factors that are analyzed in these types of investigations, such as the plane, its engines, weather conditions, pilot qualifications and maintenance records, he added. A preliminary report will be released in 10 days.

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