Global Courant
A loud explosion noise heard in the metroplex area of Washington, D.C., and areas as far east as Maryland’s east coast and as far west as Manassas, Virginia, was the sonic boom of two military jets scrambling to to overtake a Cessna plane with an unresponsive pilot.
The City of Annapolis Office of Emergency Management reported that the boom heard Sunday was in fact caused by an authorized Department of Defense (DOD) flight.
“The loud boom heard throughout the DMV area was caused by an authorized DOD flight,” the office said. “This flight caused a sonic boom. That is all the information available at this time.”
SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULES SONIC BOOM RATS FLORIDA PANHANDLE
Bowie, Maryland, officials confirmed that the sonic boom heard came from a plane out of Joint Base Andrews.
The DOD did not immediately respond to questions from Fox News Digital about the incident.
The Continental US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said two F-16 jets from an Air National Guard base near Atlantic City, New Jersey and two from the D.C. National Guard at Andrews Air Force Base responded to the Cessna over Washington , DC and Northern Virginia.
To overtake the plane, the jets were cleared to fly at supersonic speeds, and the sonic boom came from the two F-16 jets from Andrews.
The civilian aircraft was intercepted at 3:20 p.m. and fighter pilots reported that the Cessna’s pilot had become unresponsive.
NORAD also said they continued to try to contact the Cessna pilot until the plane crashed near Virginia’s George Washington National Forest.
NORAD also said people on the ground may have seen flares as they tried to intercept the plane. The flares, NORAD said, burn out quickly and completely, so there was no danger to people on the ground.
FLORIDA RESIDENTS HIT WITH THE SPACEX ROCKET’S DOUBLE SONIC BOOMS
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a Cessna Citation departing from Elizabethton, Tennessee, en route to Islip, New York, crashed in the sparsely populated town of Montebello, Virginia, around 3 p.m.
Congressional sources told Fox News that the U.S. Capitol was in “AirCon” on Sunday as officials tracked the plane as it pierced the no-fly zone in the Capitol’s region.
Fox is told that security officials at the Capitol have momentarily switched the state of alert from “Green” to “Yellow”. Blue” and “Red” are higher alert levels, and when the latter is issued, the Capitol is evacuated.
Officials told Fox that the Capitol was in an elevated position for a short time before determining that the plane entering restricted airspace posed no threat. Officials even told Fox that the Capitol was never in danger.
Rumors began circulating on social media around 3:15 p.m. Sunday about a loud explosion that was heard throughout Washington, D.C.
The Pentagon (Staff/AFP via Getty Images)
One user posted, “Has anyone felt that explosion in #DC,” while another person replied, “Especially in Prince George’s,” referring to a nearby county in Maryland.
NASA CONFIRMES A HALF-TON METEOR IN SOUTH TEXAS
Another Twitter user posted, “Did you feel what felt like an explosion! Thinking #sonicboom but from what? I’m just south of Bowie. If you felt it tell me where you did it. Thank you.”
A user on the Eastern Shore in Queen Anne’s County, across Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis, reported the explosion.
The hashtag #explosion was trending on Twitter Sunday afternoon as reports poured in about the noise.
“As the explosion subsided, I heard a plane flying over Chesapeake Bay. Estimated altitude 25,000 ft with contrails. No reports. Did anyone hear this,” the user asked.
“I live on the east coast and it shook my house,” another user commented. “I thought there was an explosion somewhere. Scary.’
Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.
