The wilderness of Saint Mary is seen in the distance June 5, 2023. A Cessna Citation jet crashed over mountainous terrain Sunday afternoon near Montebello, Va. 16 fighters will be scrambled.
Erin Edgerton/AFP via Getty Images
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Erin Edgerton/AFP via Getty Images
The wilderness of Saint Mary is seen in the distance June 5, 2023. A Cessna Citation jet crashed over mountainous terrain Sunday afternoon near Montebello, Va. 16 fighters will be scrambled.
Erin Edgerton/AFP via Getty Images
Flares, headbutts, and ready-to-fire rockets: These are some of the military’s options when a stubborn aircraft raises the alarm in US airspace. All of those choices were made Sunday afternoon, when an unresponsive Cessna jet flew over Washington, DC and crashed in Virginia.
For officials in charge of sensitive Washington airspace, “their need to respond will be far more important than would be the case if a similar event occurred in the central United States,” said a former Federal Aviation Administration official. State Michael J. McCormick told NPR.
McCormick should know: He helped design and implement protocols for the airspace around the US capital. He is currently an assistant professor and program coordinator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
When the plane triggered the military and defense alarm, it also prompted a flurry of questions from the people, many of whom had heard and even felt the sonic boom after the F-fighter jet 16 was ordered to intercept the aircraft.
“Six F-16s from three different airbases” were launched, according to John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. “They had to increase their speed to get to him, that’s why people in this District area heard sonic booms,” he said. said on monday.
John Kirby on Sunday’s NORAD intercept: “Six F-16s from three different airbases… were sent out to intercept this particular Cessna Citation…two from Andrews… they have to speed up to get to him, that’s why everyone here in the District hears sonic booms…” pic.twitter.com/0PKiqikPAk
– CSPAN (@cspan) June 5, 2023
Virginia State Police told NPR via email that the state of emergency ended in tragedy: The pilot and three passengers died on the plane that crashed more than a mile from Blue Ridge Parkway.
Emergency crews found the wreckage of the Cessna business plane “in a wild area” west of Wintergreen, Va., according to the report. Wintergreen Fire and Rescue.
What happened on the Cessna plane?
As McCormick said, “It’s a pity, and from what is available in the press, I can see that it was a tremendous loss of life, of almost an entire family.”
The Cessna Citation business jet has been registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. based in Florida. Related press reports,” John Rumpel, who runs the company, told New York Times that his daughter, 2-year-old niece, her nanny and the pilot were on the plane. They are returning to their home in East Hampton, on Long Island, after visiting his home in North Carolina.”
McCormick said that shortly after hearing about the unresponsive plane, he believed a lack of air pressure inside the plane could be the cause.
If an airplane rapidly loses air pressure at an altitude of about 35,000 feet, anyone inside would only have a few seconds to put on an oxygen mask before losing what is known as “useful sense.” The change will be gradual if the vessel is depressurized over a longer period of time.
“Everything I’ve read about it since then proves it,” McCormick said, adding that he believes the plane lost pressure during its northbound journey from Elizabethton, Tenn., to the Yard. Long Island MacArthur in New York.
“We’ve had corporate planes that lost pressurization and everyone on board lost consciousness. And the plane then started flying on its own until it ran out of fuel, then it crashed.”
Such cases have been linked to high-profile tragedies, from accident in 1999 killed golfer Payne Stewart 2005 accident of a Helios Airways passenger plane, in which 121 people were killed.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into Sunday’s crash.
Why does the plane turn south?
One of the many details that interested McCormick was the plane’s flight path. The jet flew to New York as planned – and then turned south, only to crash. One explanation is that the plane’s crew passed out before reaching Long Island.
“It must have been programmed into the automatic flight control system for the next leg of the flight from New York back to Tennessee or down to the southwest,” he said.
In most cases of crew incapacity, “the aircraft will simply continue on its current course and course, until the fuel is exhausted,” McCormick said.
Since the plane flew through Washington’s airspace at an altitude of about 34,000 feet, it was not considered a direct threat to the capital.
“If the plane picked up speed and started descending toward Washington, it would really change that calculation,” McCormick said.
What happens when the plane is unresponsive?
Air traffic controllers unable to contact the aircraft immediately notify their supervisor, who then initiates an open call to the Domestic Events Network, an all-inclusive communication line. air traffic control facility.
“There are procedures in place at all air traffic control facilities across the country,” said McCormick, who was manager of New York Air Traffic Control when the terrorists struck that day in 2001, America, after the events of September 11, 2001″. .
The system also includes national defense and defense agencies, quickly upgrading information to a higher level. At that point, senior officials can make a decision about the possibility of military intervention, including a scramble for fighter jets, as happened Sunday.
“Once they get the visuals on the plane, they’ll do what they call a head-butt,” McCormick said, “where they’ll fly close to the plane and they get the image,” McCormick said. pictures on it, then try to get the plane to see them. The next step is for them to fire flares.”
A “headbutt” sounds dramatic, but it’s nothing like what you might see in the movies, where one fighter jet comes alarmingly close to another – possibly reversed. . In the real world, two fighters are typically sent to intercept, McCormick said: One jet takes up position behind the stubborn aircraft while the other jet flies towards it from the forward direction.
“They wanted to visually see the view of the people in the cockpit, that’s all that was really about,” he said. If anyone in the cockpit was awake and alert, they would think that seeing the approaching military aircraft would help them realize something was amiss.
What are the military’s options?
After attempting to attract the aircraft’s attention, a decision must be made as to whether it is possible to shoot it down, based on the assessed threat level.
“In this case, they didn’t,” McCormick said. “They were able to visually see the plane, they could actually see inside the cockpit and see the crew seemingly unresponsive, to determine that the plane wasn’t a threat. And they did. chose not to shoot it down.”
In such cases, he said, military aircraft simply fly with the aircraft until they run out of fuel, “and they will monitor and make sure the plane hits the ground in an area that minimizes the risk to the aircraft.” people on the ground.”
“It can fly over water, or it can fly over remote areas, in which case it did. So the military doesn’t have to make the difficult decision of whether to shoot down the plane or not. “
How serious is the security warning?
The plane triggered the alarm because there were many potentially sensitive targets in the DC area, but McCormick said the unresponsive jet would cause an uproar in any part of the US.
“Wherever it happens, they will still send military aircraft to intercept and observe the aircraft in question, so that they can make an assessment of the possible threat,” he said.
As it flew over the National Capital Region airspace, the plane triggered even more warnings.
“There is a significant degree of defensive capability around Washington,” McCormick said. Possible responses range from anti-aircraft missiles and fighter jets to helicopters – and officials controlling those assets will be placed on high security on Sunday.
“There is something called the National Capital Region Coordination Center, in an undisclosed location where the FAA, the Homeland Security agencies, and the military are all based,” McCormick said. “And they are constantly monitoring the airspace in and around the area,” he added.
However, he added, the threat level was not considered high or direct enough to evacuate President Biden, who was golfing at Joint Base Andrews when the military dispatched fighter jets.
