by Madeleine Hubbard
An NRA executive and major Republican donor said her daughter and granddaughter were killed alongside the 2-year-old girl’s nanny and the pilot of a private Cessna plane that crashed in Virginia and sparked a sonic boom from responding military jets.
“My family is gone, my daughter and granddaughter,” Barbara Rumpel (pictured above) posted on Facebook Sunday evening.
Her husband, John Rumpel, who runs the Encore Motors of Melbourne, the Florida-based company that the private jet was registered to, confirmed the crash to The New York Times.
“It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed,” he said. He also speculated that the plane may have lost pressurization, causing the pilot and passengers to lose consciousness.
Rumpel has held several prominent positions at the NRA and is currently a member of the organization’s Women’s Leadership Council, per her Linkedin.
Both John and Barbara Rumpel have donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates such as former President Donald Trump, former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, former Alaska Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, former Florida House candidate Laura Loomer, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and others, according to OpenSecrets.org, a website that tracks campaign donations.
When the Cessna carrying the four people veered into restricted airspace in the capital region, the Federal Aviation Administration called the pilot but did not receive a response.
The military ordered the jets to intercept, a defense official told the Times. This led to the sonic boom that was heard across the region in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
Officials are investigating why the pilot did not respond. Officials also said that the plane, which was bound for the Long Island airport from Tennessee, was not shot down.
This is not the first tragedy experienced by the Rumpel family. In 1994, their 19-year-old daughter Victoria died in a scuba-diving accident, The New York Post reported.
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Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
Photo “Barbara Rumpel” by NRA Women.
