Human Interest Girl, 2, and Mom Among 4 Dead in Aircraft Crash That Caused Fighter Jets to Scramble Across D.C. A sonic boom was heard across the Washington, D.C., metro area Sunday as fighter jets hit “supersonic speeds” in an attempt to intercept an unresponsive pilot By Tracey Harrington McCoy Tracey Harrington McCoy Tracey Harrington McCoy is a celebrity news writer at PEOPLE Digital. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Newsweek, Parents Magazine, AOL, and Huffington Post. People Editorial Guidelines Published on June 5, 2023 10:22AM EDT Washington DC. Photo: Chen Mengtong/China News Service via Getty Four people were killed in a small plane crash in Virginia on Sunday, which caused two F-16 fighter jets to hit “supersonic speeds” in an attempt to intercept an unresponsive pilot. A two-year-old girl, her mother, the girl’s nanny and the plane's pilot were killed in the crash, according to The New York Times. The mother was identified as 49-year-old Adina Azarian, a luxury real estate agent in the Hamptons, according to The Daily Mail. After the small Cessna 560 entered restricted airspace, two F-16 fighter jets were dispatched, according to a statement from NORAD. The jets were “authorized to travel at supersonic speed and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,” the statement said. Once the jets reached the unresponsive Cessna, flares were used “in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot“ and “may have been visible to the public.” NORAD said the aircraft was “intercepted at approximately 3:20 p.m.” local time and the “pilot was unresponsive.” After many attempts to “establish contact with the pilot,” the civilian aircraft crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, the statement said. “NORAD attempted to establish contact with the pilot until the aircraft crashed.” Adina Azarian and daughter. Adina Azarian/Facebook Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The aircraft was a private business jet owned by Encore Motors of Melbourne, the Times reported. John Rumpel, who runs the company, told the outlet that the group was flying to New York after visiting him in North Carolina. While he said he didn’t know much about the crash, he speculated that if the plane had lost pressurization, the four individuals on the plane "would have gone to sleep and never woke up.” Authorities near crash site. Randall K. Wolf via AP Rumpel’s wife, Barbara Rumpel, shared photos of her daughter and granddaughter on FacebookSunday, writing, “My family is gone, my daughter and granddaughter.” First responders who attended to the crash site said the plane left a “crater” and it appeared that the plane hit the ground “at a very steep angle," CNN reported. The cause of the crash currently remains unknown, but the NTSB is investigating. DC Homeland Security & Emergency Management acknowledged the boom soon after it happened. “We are aware of reports from communities throughout the National Capital Region of a loud “boom” this afternoon,” the agency tweeted. “There is no threat at this time.” The sonic boom was caused when the F-16s his supersonic speeds. According to the Air Force, a sonic boom is “caused by an object moving faster than sound -- about 750 miles per hour at sea level.” Karen Hatchl, a teacher in Arlington, was playing frisbee with her kids when they heard a loud noise that “sounded like thunder” even though there “wasn’t a cloud in the sky.” She tells PEOPLE that they “wondered if something had blown up.” “It was jarring,” she says. “Enough so that I looked for an emergency announcement and radar to see what it could be.” Maddie Caywood, a PR manager, meanwhile said, “I was with friends at an outdoor gathering in Capitol Hill. We heard a loud, booming sound that shook the porch and made everyone around us go silent. It sounded like a cannon went off nearby.”