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CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. (AP) — Coast Guard crews are searching the waters off the Virginia coast for a single-engine plane that crashed after the pilot lost consciousness.
The Coast Guard says the plane had drifted into restricted airspace over the nation's capital this afternoon, scrambling two Air Force fighter jets that stayed with the single-engine Cirrus plane until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman says the plane took off from Waukesha, Wisconsin, and was headed to Manassas, Virginia, which is about 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.
The plane was registered to Ronald Hutchinson, of Brookfield, Wisconsin. Relatives reached at a phone listing for him didn't want to comment.
A Coast Guard helicopter found no sign of the plane before heading back for refueling. A C130 airplane based out of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and an 87-foot cutter from Virginia Beach are also responding.
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