There is so much going on that, blessedly, the liberal media didn’t harp on the political history of the family involved in a tragic plane crash in the DC area over the weekend. A Cessna aircraft flying an erratic pattern and unresponsive on the radio spurred a military response Sunday. Two F-16s were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds over the capital, prompting residents to hear a loud boom overhead. The plane was registered to John Rumpel of Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc.
Mr. Rumpel and his wife, Barbara, are very active within Republican Party circles, having donated generously to the Trump Victory PAC and are heavily involved with National Rifle Association activities. Their daughter and granddaughter, along with a nanny and the pilot, were onboard the aircraft when it crashed. There were no survivors. Mr. Rumpel told The New York Times that the loss of pressurization could explain this tragedy, adding that if that was the case, he hoped no one suffered.
“They all just would have gone to sleep and never woke up,” he said.
B) Fox has now learned an additional two F-16's were sent from McEntire Joint National Guard base in South Carolina, according to several U.S. defense officials.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 5, 2023
D) The F-16 pilots tried to get the Cessna pilots attention unsuccessfully for 30 minutes before the Cessna went down in Virginia.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 5, 2023
As more details emerge, it looks like the loss of pressurization could be a working theory, as the pilot on the Cessna was reported to be unresponsive and slumped over (via NBC News):
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The pilot of a private plane that slammed into rugged Virginia terrain, killing all four people on board, was spotted slumped over in the craft by fighter pilots who scrambled to intercept the plane as it flew over Washington, D.C., an official said.
The Cessna, chased by military jets before it went down Sunday, took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, at 1:13 p.m. ET before air traffic controllers radioed at 1:28 p.m. asking it to stop its climb at 33,000 feet, a senior government official said.
The plane, headed northeast toward Long Island, New York, turned around near New York City and was headed back south when fighter jets from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, were sent to investigate and spotted the pilot slumped over, the official said.
The plane ran out of fuel and crashed near Montebello, Virginia, at 3:32 p.m. The pilot was silent and out of communication with air traffic controllers in the final two hours of the flight, the official said.
On Monday, John Rumpel, whose corporation is the registered owner of the aircraft, identified three of those on board: Adina Azarian, 49; her daughter Aria, 2; and pilot Jeff Hefner.
[…]
In Virginia, the crash scene is in a “densely wooded, remote, mountainous area of Augusta County, near the Nelson County line,” more than a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway, State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller said.
First responders could not reach the scene by foot until about 8 p.m. Sunday, Geller added.
It could be days before National Transportation Safety Board investigators corral the highly fragmented debris field, the agency said.
We’ll keep you updated.
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