Small plane over Washington causes military jet to scramble, later crashes in Va.

WASHINGTON — A wayward and unresponsive business plane that flew over the nation’s capital Sunday afternoon caused the military to scramble a fighter jet before the plane crashed in Virginia, officials said. The fighter jet caused a loud sonic boom that was heard across the capital region.

Hours later, police said that rescuers had reached the site of the crash in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley, and that no survivors were found.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane took off from Elizabethtown, Tenn., on Sunday and was headed for Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. Inexplicably, it turned around over Long Island and flew a straight path to Washington before it crashed near Montebello, Va.

It was not clear why the plane was nonresponsive, why it crashed, or how many people were on board.

A US official confirmed that the military jet had scrambled to respond to the small plane, which wasn’t responding to radio transmissions. Flight tracking sites showed the plane suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute.

Virginia State Police said officers were notified of the crash around 4 p.m. and rescuers reached the crash site around four hours later. No survivors were found, police said. The plane was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc, based in Florida. John Rumpel, who runs the company, said his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, a nanny, and the pilot were aboard the plane. They were returning to their home in East Hampton, on Long Island, after visiting him in North Carolina, he said.