The family of a Florida GOP megadonor was on board the private plane that sparked NORAD to scramble fighter jets before crashing

Authorities secure the entrance to Mine Bank Trail, an access point to the rescue operation along the Blue Ridge Parkway where a Cessna Citation crashed over mountainous terrain near Montebello, Virginia.

Randall K. Wolf/AP

• Millionaire John Rumpel said his family was aboard the plane that crashed in Virginia. 
• He told NYT that his daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter were on the plane. 
• The private jet flew over Washington DC — causing the military to scramble fighter jets — before crashing.

Florida millionaire and GOP megadonor John Rumpel said his family was on the private plane that crashed in Virginia over the weekend — an incident that led the North American Aerospace Defense Command to scramble fighter jets into action, causing a sonic boom heard across the Washington, DC, area.

John Rumpel, the owner of Encore Motors of Melbourne, told the Washington Post and New York Times that his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, his granddaughter's nanny, and a pilot were on board the Cessna flight when it crashed in southwest Virginia on Sunday.

Rumpel, 75, told The Times that the family was traveling home to East Hampton, New York, after visiting his home in North Carolina when the plane crashed.

He told The Times that he did not know what caused the crash, but he speculated that if the plane had lost pressure, "they all just would have gone to sleep and never woke up."

"It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed," he added.

Officials found no survivors.

Florida Today reported that Rumpel's wife, Barbara Rumpel, spoke about the plane crash on a Facebook post about a National Rifle Association-related event.

"My family is gone, my daughter and granddaughter," she wrote, according to Florida Today.

The New York Post reported that Barbara and John Rumpel are longtime GOP supporters and made a $250,000 donation to the Trump Victory PAC in 2020.

Barbara Rumpel is also an executive committee member of the NRA Women's Leadership Forum, the New York Post reported.

Florida Today reported that the couple is based in Brevard County, Florida.

The Federal Aviation Administration told the Associated Press the plane made it to New York's Long Island but turned around and flew toward Washington, DC, before crashing in Virginia.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement released on Twitter that it deployed F-16 jets after the plane, which was unresponsive, flew over the nation's capital. The agency said the jets "were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds," which could have caused the sonic boom.

The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating the crash. Federal officials said they haven't determined the cause of the fatal crash yet.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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