the capital briefly placed on elevated alert and air national guard pilots scrambled to intercept. causing a sonic boom heard around the beltway. but norad says pilots got no response to fly-bfly-by, flares radio calls. authorities say the plane was not shot down but if it appeared to be a threat they do have the ability to shoot down a civilian aircraft if that is required. reporter: the plane was tracked until it crashed in to the mountains of central virginia. there were four people on board. how might a lack of oxygen cause a crash? some sort of depressurization of that likely, rapid or maybe slow, which caused the pilot to be incapacitated and also rendered the passengers unconscious. reporter: first responders telling cnn there were no survivors, just a crater and small debris fragments and scenes of human remains.
is nbc nightly news with kate snow good evening we begin tonight with the breaking news. frightening scenes in the air and on the ground in washington, d.c. this afternoon. military jets were scrambled after a small plane violated the air space over washington and the pilot was not responding to radio calls. on the ground residents across the city were shaken when they heard a massive boom overhead. take a listen to that boom as it interrupted these two musicians. that noise believed to be a sonic boom from the military jets racing to catch up to the small plane. aaron gilcrest has the late breaking details from washington. reporter: chaos over the nation s capital. i heard a really loud boom that shook the whole house. reporter: an extremely loud boom rattling residents. i was worried something happened to the kids first we all thought it was
intercept that plane because they didn t know what they were up to. people who heard and felt the sonic boom thought the sound was the emergency. that had actually happened in the sky hundreds of miles back and the boom was the response. [sonic boom] that s the sound of f-16 jets breaking sound barrier chasing an aircraft broken into airspace in washington, d.c. the pilot was not responding to radio calls. the cessna ultimately crashed in rural, virginia killing the four on board. norad was very clear they did not take this plane down. now, here is fox news jon scott also a licensed pilot speaking to the plane s unusual flight pat. path. it took off from tennessee
f-16s. because of the potential urgency of the situation, being the fact that the plane was flying somewhat erratically, the pilot wasn t responding to any kind of radio calls, because of that those military aircraft were authorized to fly at a super sonic speed. that s where this sonic boom came in. essentially they fly so quickly that it makes this enormous sound that people all around the area were able to hear. well, those two jets made their way to the cessna, they were able to intercept it, they even fired off some flares with the intent of trying to gain the pilot s attention. the flares basically just burn up in the air, they don t ever fall to the ground, no one is in danger from them, but the pilot never responded and ultimately as you mentioned mika, it continued to fly. it started a very rapid descent because it got down towards southwestern virginia and crashed into a forest, fortunately an area where there was no one around. as you mentioned, it seems everyone on the airc
crashed in virginia after flying hundreds of miles past its destination, but the reasons remain unclear for the mystery flight that passed right over the d.c. area and prompted fighter jets to scramble. investigators describe highly fragmented wreckage in very mountainous terrain. the airplane, the engines, the weather conditions, pilot qualifications, the maintenance records, all aspects will be, of course, items that we routinely look at. reporter: the flight path shows a takeoff from tennessee. at its destination on new york s long island, the plane turns but doesn t land. instead, it keeps flying at 34,000 feet, right into highly restrictive air space near washington, d.c. the capitol briefly placed on an elevated alert and air national guard pilots scrambled to intercept. causing a sonic boom heard around the beltway. but noraad says the pilots got no response to fly-bys, flares or radio calls. national guard fighter on guard. if you hear this transmission,