The family of a prominent MAGA donor have died in a plane crash after a military jet scrambled over Washington DC to contact the passed out pilot.
Florida businessman John Rumpel's daughter and two-year-old granddaughter were on board the private jet, alongside the toddler's nanny and pilot.
The small plane sparked a major security alert and sonic boom that was heard across the capital.
A F-16 jet was scrambled to make contact with the plane which wasn't responding to radio transmissions as it flew above some of the most heavily restricted airspace in the United States.
It crashed in Virginia after the pilot reportedly lost consciousness.
Hours later, police said rescuers had reached the site of the plane crash in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley, near Montebello and no survivors were found.
The private jet was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. Mr Rumpel, who runs the company with wife Barbara, told the New York Times he hoped his family and other passengers did not suffer.
He said if the plane lost cabin pressure then "they all just would have gone to sleep and never woke up.”"
Mr Rumpel's family were returning to their home in East Hampton, on Long Island, after visiting his house in North Carolina, he said.
The prominent MAGA donor, said: “It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed.”
The businessman has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to former president Donald Trump and his wife also on the NRA board of directors for 2023 and served on Donald Trump's 2nd Amendment Coalition.
The couple donated $250,000 to the Trump campaign in 2020, reports the Daily Beast.
Flight tracking sites showed the jet suffered a rapid spiralling descent, dropping at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the Cessna Citation took off from Elizabethtown, Tennessee, on Sunday and was headed for Long Island's MacArthur Airport.
But the plane turned around over New York's Long Island and flew a straight path down over DC before it crashed over mountainous terrain near Montebello, Virginia, around 3.30pm.
As the private jet didn't respond to transmissions, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said an F-16 was sent to respond and authorised to travel at supersonic speeds, which caused a sonic boom that was heard in Washington and parts of Virginia and Maryland.
In a statement, NORAD said: "During this event, the NORAD aircraft also used flares - which may have been visible to the public - in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot.
"Flares are employed with highest regard for safety of the intercepted aircraft and people on the ground. Flares burn out quickly and completely and there is no danger to the people on the ground when dispensed."
President Joe Biden was playing golf at Joint Base Andrews around the time the fighter jet took off. He has been briefed on the incident.
