Operator: Part 91: General aviation - Personal Location: Montebello, VA Date: June 4, 2023, 15:23 Local Aircraft & Registration: Cessna 560, N611VG Accident Number: ERA23FA256 Injuries: 4 Fatal


PRELIMINARY


On June 4, 2023, about 1523 eastern daylight time, a Cessna Citation 560 airplane, N611VG, was destroyed when it impacted terrain near Montebello, Virginia. The airline transport pilot and three passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was operated by Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. as a personal flight conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.


The private business jet went down near Montebello, Va., the National Transportation Safety Board said. A spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police said in a statement that emergency responders were able to reach the wreckage on foot about four hours after receiving a report of a plane crash.


John Rumpel, who runs Encore Motors of Melbourne, a Florida-based company that owns the aircraft, said in a telephone interview on Monday that his daughter, Adina Azarian; his 2-year-old granddaughter; her nanny and the pilot were on the plane and did not survive.


The plane, a Cessna 560 Citation V, crashed “almost straight down and at a high speed,” he said, adding that the impact caused a crater, and the wreckage was spread over 150 yards. Mr. Rumpel had said on Sunday that they were returning home to East Hampton, N.Y., after a four-day visit to his home in North Carolina.


Investigators were left on Monday to piece together what went awry with the flight, which had taken off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tenn., around 1:15 p.m. and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.


Fifteen minutes after taking off, the pilot was given a command from air traffic control to level off at 31,000 feet but did not respond, said Eric Weiss, a spokesman for the N.T.S.B. Instead, the plane continued to climb until it reached a cruising altitude of 34,000 feet, he said.


The pilot didn’t respond when air traffic controllers attempted to contact him 15 minutes after taking off, according to the FAA. The agency says hypoxia symptoms “increase in severity” once the altitude is above 10,000 feet.


“By far the most likely suspect is some sort of a pressurization issue,” safety science professor William Waldock told the Associated Press.


“It went up to 34,000 feet and basically stayed there — all the way up, all the way back. The turn (away from New York and back south) is a little perplexing. But it kind of depends on what kind of autopilot system the aircraft had.”


Six F-16 fighter jets attempted to intercept the unresponsive plane. A pair of U.S. officials told the AP that fighter jets reported the Cessna pilot appeared to be slumped over in the cockpit


NTSB PRELIMINARY REPORT ERA23FA256 https://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/ResultsV2.aspx?queryId=c3b89fd9-a672-47d6-920a-81c32d5253f1


High Altitude Awareness Training 4


"Four people died when a Citation 560 private jet crashed in Virginia after failing to respond to air


traffic controllers and flying over restricted airspace in Washington, D.C. The military scrambled F-16s to intercept the non-responsive aircraft."


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