Republican donor’s plane involved in deadly crash that triggered sonic boom

Family members of a prominent supporter of conservative Republican causes died Sunday when their private jet crashed after flying over sensitive government sites in Washington without permission, setting off a security scare. 

US fighter aircraft triggered a sonic boom that rattled the area as they chased a Cessna jet that flew over the region before eventually plunging to the ground in Virginia. 

The plane, a Cessna 560 Citation V, was unresponsive when intercepted by fighter pilots as it traversed Washington and northern Virginia, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said in a statement. Its pilot had stopped talking to air-traffic controllers not long after taking off, said a person familiar with the incident who asked not to be named discussing the case.

No survivors were found when rescuers got to the wreckage, the Associated Press reported. 

Four people were aboard the Cessna, a popular twin-engine business jet. They included a two-year-old girl, her mother, her nanny and the pilot, the New York Times reported. John Rumpel, whose Florida-based Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. owns the plane, told the Times his daughter and granddaughter were on the Cessna when it crashed. 

Rumpel and his wife, Barbara, have been frequent conservative donors, including to political campaigns for Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, according to the Open Secrets website. Barbara Rumpel is also a member of the National Rifle Association of America Women’s Leadership Forum, according to the group’s website. 

Attempts to reach Encore Motors were unsuccessful. 

The NORAD aircraft deployed to respond to the Cessna “were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,” according to the statement. NORAD aircraft also used flares, which may have been visible from the ground, in an attempt to draw the pilot’s attention, the agency said.

The US Capitol complex was briefly placed on elevated alert until the airplane left the region, US Capitol Police said. Airspace near Washington has been highly restricted since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and New York’s World Trade Center. President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident, a White House official said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that a Cessna Citation crashed into mountainous terrain in Montebello, Virginia, around 3:30 p.m. The aircraft took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, the FAA said.

The crash occurred more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) to the southwest of Washington. NORAD attempted to establish contact with the pilot until the jet went down in Virginia, according to the statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it will investigate.

Flight Path

According to data provided by the tracking website Flightradar24, the Cessna flew at about 34,000 feet (10,400 meters), a normal cruising altitude for the small jet, toward New York. 

Controllers guiding the plane were unable to reach the pilot starting within 30 minutes or less from when it took off, said the person familiar with the early stages of the investigation.

It flew over several states before making a slight left turn as it reached the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey and continued over the water toward its destination. It then turned and cruised directly over the Long Island airport at about 2:30 p.m. ET, but instead of descending or landing toward the southwest — the direction it had turned — it instead continued on a straight path for about the next 50 minutes. 

FAA officials alerted NORAD as the jet continued flying back toward Washington without radio contact, said the person.

The jet’s path took it over Washington near the highly sensitive US Capitol and White House, according to the Flightradar24 track.

Rapid Descent

The flight path suggests the autopilot steered the plane toward its destination without the pilot’s input, said Jeffrey Guzzetti, a consultant and former chief accident investigator with the FAA. 

At least one possible explanation is that the jet’s cabin lost air pressure, either explosively or gradually, Guzzetti said. The plane would have had a supply of emergency oxygen, but if pilots don’t act immediately it can lead rapidly to incapacitation, he said. 

“When you’re at that altitude, 34,000 feet, and you suddenly lose pressure, you better get your mask on quickly or you’re going to lose consciousness,” he said. 

Shortly after passing Charlottesville, Virginia, the jet went into a right turn and descended rapidly, going from 34,000 feet to 27,635 feet in about two minutes, Flightradar24 spokesman Ian Petchenik said. Just before it disappeared from the company’s tracking system, it was plunging at about 20,000 feet per minute, Petchenik said.

Such descent speeds are highly unusual and could signal the plane ran out of fuel, Guzzetti said.