Crews rescue 2 from plane caught in power lines
GAITHERSBURG, MD. >> Two people were extricated from a small plane early Monday in Maryland, several hours after they crashed into power lines, causing widespread outages in the surrounding county.
Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said the plane was secured to the tower at 12:16 a.m., and the first occupant was removed from the plane at 12:25 a.m. The second occupant was out at 12:36 a.m.
Goldstein did not say which of the men, identified by Maryland State Police as pilot Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., and passenger Jan Williams, 66, of Louisiana, were rescued first from the plane that was stuck about 100 feet above the ground.
He said both men suffered “serious injuries” from the crash and that hypothermia was also an issue. Both men were transported to local trauma centers with non-life threatening injuries, Goldstein said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the single-engine plane, which had departed White Plains, N.Y., crashed into a power line tower near Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg about 5:40 p.m. Sunday.
Pete Piringer, chief spokesperson for the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service, had said on Twitter that the people on board were uninjured and that rescuers had been in contact with them. He had at one point said in a video message that three people were on the plane but later clarified that it was two.
Goldstein said that utility contractors first worked to ground the high-tension wires to make it safe for rescuers to work. Fire crews then made the plane stable by attaching it to the tower. He said rescuers were periodically contacting the two in the plane by cellphone to check on them.
The FAA identified the plane as a Mooney M20J.
The video showed a small white plane positioned nose up near a power tower. A local television station’s live video showed the plane remained stuck in the transmission tower after 8 p.m.