John Rumpel, the owner of a Cessna passenger aircraft that crashed in a Virginia forest after flying into restricted airspace over Washington, D.C., Sunday, has sadly confirmed that he lost his daughter, Adina Azarian, and his 2-year-old granddaughter in the crash.

The pilot of the private jet had fallen unconscious. As a result of the aircraft entering restricted airspace unannounced, two DoD-authorized F-16s scrambled from the Pentagon to intercept the plane, causing a sonic boom across the D.C. area.

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The Virginia State Police began a search and rescue mission immediately after receiving reports of the crash. They found no survivors.

The plane had departed from Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Islip, New York. The plane crashed in the sparsely populated town of Montebello, Virginia, around 3 p.m. The plane was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, which is a Florida-based company owned by John and Barbara Rumpel. None of them were on the plane.

Rumpel told The New York Times his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, her nanny, and the pilot were on the plane at the time of the crash.

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“We know nothing about the crash,” he told Washington Post. “We are talking to the FAA now.”

Who is John Rumpel?

John Rumpel owns real estate and boasts of having multiple luxury properties in Florida and other places.

He donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to former President Donald Trump and his political organization over the years. He donated $250,000 to the Trump Victory PAC in 2020. His wife, Barbara, has also donated to an array of Republican candidates including $2,900 to Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker and $500 to Florida congressional candidate Laura Loomer, who is a far-right influencer who is famous for being Islamaphobic.

Barbara is also the president of John’s company, Encore Motors, and a prominent member of the NRA Women’s Leadership Forum in Florida.  “My family is gone, my daughter and granddaughter,” she wrote on Facebook after the crash.