WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Many across the DMV reported hearing a loud boom at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Some of those people called the DC News Now newsroom saying they felt the ground shake.

The noise, it turns out, came from military jets that the Department of Defense scrambled to intercept a private business jet that entered restricted airspace. The jet later crashed in southwestern Virginia. No one who was on it survived.

The FAA said the Cessna Citation aircraft was headed to Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York when it made an unexpected turn south towards the nation’s capital.

The flight took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tenn., officials said.

Several agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), confirmed that the private business jet flew through restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. before it crashed in southwestern Virginia.

As it flew into heavily monitored and restricted airspace over the nation’s capital, a total of six F-16 fighter jets were deployed from several locations, including Joint Base Andrews, NORAD officials confirmed. Two of the F-16 jets intercepted the plane.

“The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,” defense officials said in a statement.

NORAD also used flares in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot. All attempts were unsuccessful, the agency said.

The plane crashed moments later near the George Washington National Forest.

Emergency departments, including the City of Annapolis Office of Emergency Management, said they were made aware of reports of a loud boom in the metro area.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also released a statement that said, in part, “At approximately 3:30 p.m. EDT, a Cessna 560 airplane crashed in a rural mountain area. The airplane was unresponsive to Air Traffic Control communications. The airplane overflew its destination of Long Island MacArthur Airport.”

NTSB said that its investigators are expected to arrive on the scene on Monday. They said that investigations take between 12 and 24 months.