Investigators looking into the cause of Virginia plane crash

On Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board said it would release a preliminary report on the incident within 10 days and a final report in one to two years. NTSB investigators said they were examining everything about the wreckage for answers to why the plane flew through restricted airspace above Washington, D.C., the manner of the flight, and why the pilot remained unresponsive. One theory is that the pilot lost consciousness due to low cabin pressure. The crash killed all four of the plane’s occupants.

What happened before the crash? On Sunday, the small business jet took off from Elizabethton in Upper East Tennessee on a flight to Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. The aircraft reached New York, turned, then flew to Washington, D.C., before crashing near Montebello, Va. While over the capital, the plane flew into highly restricted airspace. Six F-16 fighters scrambled to intercept it and caused a sonic boom over the D.C. Metropolitan area in the process. The fighters tried to signal the pilot with flares but received no response.

Dig deeper: Read Lynde Langon’s earlier report about the plane crash in The Sift.