The single-engine plane, which was flying from White Plains, New York, crashed into a power line pylon near Gaithersburg’s Montgomery County Airport, the FAA said in a statement.
Posted Date – Monday, 11/28/22 at 11:45am
A small plane sits on a live power line after it crashed in Montgomery Village on the northern outskirts of Gaithersburg, Maryland, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022.Photo: Associated Press
Gaithersburg: Officials were working to rescue the plane and its passengers after a small plane carrying two people became stuck in a live power line in Maryland Sunday night, causing widespread power outages in surrounding counties.
The single-engine plane, which was flying from White Plains, New York, crashed into a power line pylon near Gaithersburg’s Montgomery County Airport at around 5:40 p.m. Sunday, the FAA said in a statement. The plane was stranded about 100 feet above the ground.
The FAA said there were two people on board.
Pete Pillinger, chief spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, said on Twitter that those on board were identified by Maryland police as pilot Patrick Merkel, 65, of Washington, D.C., and passenger Jane Williams, 66, of Louisiana. There were no injuries and rescuers had contact with them. He once said in a video message that there were three people on the plane, but later clarified that there were two.
Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein told reporters that all resources would not be ready for the rescue effort until 9:30 p.m. or later, but he did not say how long it would take to get the plane on board. Passengers take away under the timetable.
Utility contractors will first ground the high-voltage lines to ensure rescuers can do their jobs safely, Goldstein said.
Firefighters would then use a bucket truck or a crane to stabilize the plane by chaining or strapping it to the tower.
Once the plane stabilized, rescuers would use a crane or bucket truck to remove the pair from the plane, Goldstein said. Rescuers are regularly contacting them by mobile phone to check on their condition, he said.
The FAA identified the plane as a Mooney M20J.
The video showed a small white plane nose-up approaching a power tower.
Live video from a local TV station showed the plane still stuck inside the tower just after 8pm.
Piringer said power lines remained live, complicating rescue efforts.
“Everything is still alive and well at this point,” he said.
Utility company Pepco reported that about 120,000 customers were without power in Montgomery County.
Many traffic lights in the area were also out, Piringer said. The utility said in a statement that its crews were waiting for rescuers to clear them into the scene before they could perform repairs at the crash site.
The crash happened in Gaithersburg, a city of 69,000 about 39 kilometers northwest of Washington, D.C.
The cause of the accident is not yet known.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate what happened.
