AFP, Washington

US officials said yesterday there were no survivors from the Virginia crash of a small plane carrying four people, a day after the unresponsive aircraft prompted the scrambling of fighter jets from Washington.

The Cessna Citation slammed into mountainous terrain Sunday afternoon some 170 miles (275 kilometers) southwest of the capital, according to the Federal Aviation Administration which was investigating the incident.

F-16s earlier chased the aircraft at high speed -- triggering a sonic boom across Washington and its suburbs, startling residents and rattling windows and walls for miles.

Virginia State Police said in a statement sent to AFP that first responders reached the site near the town of Staunton by foot four hours after crash.

“No survivors were located” and the search efforts were suspended, state police said.

President Joe Biden, who was at the White House and also played golf Sunday, was briefed on the incident, an official said without specifying whether any emergency precautions were implemented.

The civilian plane had taken off from Elizabethton, Tennessee bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, the FAA said.