Received

Four people, including the pilot, were killed in a crash of a light plane that caused a security scare when it flew over heavily restricted airspace near Washington, authorities say.

Investigators do not yet know why the plane was on that flight path after the pilot became unresponsive on Sunday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

The Department of Defense scrambled F-16 fighter jets, which created a sonic boom over the US capital as they pursued the Cessna Citation 560 that crashed in southwest Virginia.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed on Monday that four people were killed in the crash, without identifying them. There were no survivors, Virginia State Police said.

NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt said the wreckage was highly fragmented and in heavily wooded, rural mountainous terrain that made it "a very challenging accident site." The NTSB will remove wreckage and move it to a secure location in Delaware.

"Basically everything is on the table," Gerhardt said of the investigation. "The airplane, the engines, the weather conditions, pilot qualifications, the maintenance records -- all aspects will be of course items we routinely look at."

The Cessna was not required to have a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder, NTSB said.

A US official said the fighter jets did not cause the crash.

The Cessna was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Florida, according to FAA flight records.

Encore owner John Rumpel told the Washington Post his daughter, a grandchild and her nanny were on board.

The U.S. military attempted to contact the pilot, who was unresponsive, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement. Military pilots also used flares in an attempt to get the pilot's attention.

The Cessna appeared to be flying on autopilot, another source familiar with the matter said.

The Cessna took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, about 80 km east of Manhattan, the FAA said.

© RAW 2023

What is 20 years of someone's life worth?

That is a question the NSW government is facing after Kathleen Folbigg was extraordinarily pardoned and released from a Grafton prison on Monday.

The use of the mercy power by Governor Margaret Beazley followed a former NSW chief justice's finding of reasonable doubt in the four homicide convictions that have kept the 55-year-old Folbigg imprisoned since 2003.

Just as Lindy Chamberlain adamantly protested her innocence, the former Hunter Valley hospitality worker had always denied responsibility for the deaths of Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura, who were all under the age of two when they died between 1989 and 1999.

She now faces the prospect of joining a select few in Australia including Ms Chamberlain awarded seven-figure sums in light of their wrongful convictions.

Robyn Blewer, director of the Griffith University Innocence Project, pointed to two recent cases to indicate how Folbigg could be compensated for her 7300 days in jail.

West Australian man Scott Austic in May received $1.3 million on top of an earlier payment of $250,000 after serving nearly 13 years for murdering his pregnant secret lover.

He'd sought $8.5 million after being acquitted in 2020 on appeal.

Both payments were ex gratia, unlike David Eastman who was awarded $7 million in damages by the ACT Supreme Court in 2019.

Mr Eastman served almost 19 years over the 1989 shooting murder of federal police assistant commissioner Colin Winchester, only to be acquitted at a second trial.

"The difference is it was in ACT which has a human rights act and under that, there is an entitlement for compensation under human rights," Dr Blewer told AAP.

"Mr Eastman was then able to sue because there was a right to compensation.

"The court assessed his damages in the same way they would a tort ... the court went through every time he was injured."

Like Mr Austic, Ms Chamberlain was awarded an ex gratia or grace payment. The $1.3 million awarded in 1992 now equates to about $3 million.

Given NSW lacks a human rights act like that of the ACT, Folbigg will need specific legal advice about whether a civil claim is possible.

Dr Blewer said she could end up reliant on what the government was willing to pay.

"Twenty years is a substantial amount of time lost," she said.

"It might depend on the good grace of the NSW government."

Before that bridge can be crossed, Folbigg's lawyers will await the final report of former chief justice Tom Bathurst into her convictions.

An application to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to quash her convictions is likely to follow shortly afterwards.

Greens MP Sue Higginson, who championed Ms Folbigg's pardon in the NSW parliament, indicated the former prisoner would be seeking compensation or an "ex gratia payment of some sort".

"Whatever that sum looks like, may it be the biggest sum that we can imagine," she told reporters on Monday.

Talk of compensation was dismissed on Monday both by Attorney-General Michael Daley, on whose advice the governor pardoned Folbigg, and his predecessor Mark Speakman who initiated the inquiry.

"That's getting well ahead ... of today's story," Mr Daley told reporters.

Folbigg's friend Tracy Chapman and solicitor Rhanee Rego, who has worked the case pro bono for six years, are due to address media on Tuesday morning.

© AAP 2023

Kathleen Folbigg is "beyond happy" after walking from her prison cell of 20 years into the arms of jubilant friends and loyal supporters.

Advocates for the 55-year-old mother of four celebrated after Folbigg was unconditionally pardoned on Monday.

Vision shows her grinning widely as she is reunited with and embraced by an ecstatic friend after emerging from a Corrective Services vehicle.

Folbigg was jailed in 2003 after a seven-week jury trial found her guilty of three counts of murder and one of manslaughter over the deaths of her babies Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura between 1989 and 1999.

She was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with the term later reduced on appeal to 30 years with a minimum of 25.

Arriving at the rural home of lifelong mate and fierce advocate Tracy Chapman, a joyful Folbigg thanked her supporters in a video aired by 7 News.

"I can't thank everybody enough for all of the support and all of the hard work that has gone into this moment," she said from the town of Glenreagh, south of Grafton.

"I'm beyond happy, it's ridiculous. I'm in shock, so thank you."

Folbigg is set to stay at the property over the coming days.

Greens MP and supporter Sue Higginson was one of the first to reveal Folbigg had been released from Clarence Correctional Centre in Grafton.

"She's walking, she's outside, she's in the sunshine ... justice has been done," she told reporters.

Peter Yates acknowledged feeling angry about his friend's two-decades in jail but conceded it was "a virtue that's probably not that useful".

"That anger is not going to bring back 20 years of being incarcerated," he said.

"NSW ... incarcerated a poor woman who lost her four children for 20 years - it's terrible."

The polarising case had been hotly debated in the weeks leading up Folbigg's release. A fresh inquiry heard credible evidence her children may have died of natural causes.

Opposition leader Mark Speakman described it as a tragedy on many levels, saying there were no winners.

"It's a tragedy for the children. It's a tragedy for (ex-husband) Craig Folbigg," he said.

"It's a tragedy that someone has been incarcerated for 20 years."

Attorney-General Michael Daley broke the long-awaited news on Monday, saying he had received an advance copy of a summary of an inquiry by former chief justice Thomas Bathurst into Folbigg's convictions, which found reasonable doubt about her guilt.

Mr Daley agreed with Mr Bathurst, who said he was "firmly of the view" there was reasonable doubt.

"There was no physical evidence the children were smothered," Mr Bathurst found, saying he was "unable to accept ... the proposition Ms Folbigg was anything but a caring mother for her children".

Mr Daley said Governor Margaret Beazley had accepted his recommendation she should "exercise the royal prerogative of mercy and grant Ms Folbigg an unconditional pardon".

"Justice can ultimately be done even if it takes a long time," he said.

Ms Higginson indicated Folbigg would pursue compensation for the "20 years of her life that has been lost".

"This is our Lindy Chamberlain case," she said referring to the woman wrongfully convicted of killing her nine-week-old daughter and later awarded $1.3 million in compensation after being sentenced to life and spending four years in jail.

Folbigg's pardon does not mean her convictions will be automatically quashed.

But Ms Higginson believes they will be withdrawn and pointed to an admission from the director of public prosecution about reasonable doubt.

"That means most likely there will be no objector in terms of her application to have her convictions quashed in the criminal court of appeal," she said.

© AAP 2023