The plane, believed to have been on autopilot, departed from Elizabethtown in Tennessee and inexplicably changed course while flying over New York's Long Island.

Originally bound for MacArthur Airport on Long Island, the aircraft entered the highly restricted airspace over Washington DC before ultimately crashing into mountainous terrain near Montebello, Virginia. The plane, identified as a Cessna Citation, failed to respond to radio communications, leaving authorities perplexed as to why it altered its route.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the incident on Twitter, stating: “A Cessna Citation crashed into mountainous terrain near Montebello, VA around 3:30 PM ET on June 4. The aircraft took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, TN and was bound for Long Island's MacArthur Airport in New York. The FAA and @NTSB will investigate.”

Efforts to gain the attention of the unresponsive aircraft were made by F-16 fighter jets dispatched by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The jets deployed flares in an attempt to establish contact, but their efforts proved unsuccessful.

Virginia State Police were alerted to the potential crash just before 4 p.m., and search and rescue teams reached the crash site on foot approximately four hours later. Tragically, no survivors were found.

The reasons behind the sudden course change of the Cessna Citation and its failure to respond to radio calls remain unknown. As the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launch investigations into the incident, questions linger about the circumstances that led to the unauthorized entry into restricted airspace and the subsequent crash in Virginia's mountainous region. (ILKHA)