Authorities have confirmed that an explosive sonic boom heard by residents in the wider D.C. area were Defense-authorized supersonic flights responding to an erratic small plane flying through the capital’s restricted airspace.
Federal officials have since said that a small plane that crashed into a mountainside in the George Washington National Forest, southwestern Virginia, was the plane that the supersonic flights were responding to.
“A Cessna Citation crashed into mountainous terrain in a sparsely populated area of southwest Virginia around 3 p.m. local time on June 4,” the FAA said in a statement.
The supersonic response was triggered as the National Capital Region above the greater D.C. area is a Special Flight Rules Area that restricts all flights without Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) permission….