Small plane crashed into the power lines with 1 pilot and 1 passenger in Gaithersburg, Maryland

A small plane with two people on board got stuck in live power lines in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Montgomery county lost power while officials waited for permission to get them and the plane out safely.

On Sunday evening in Maryland, a tiny plane that was carrying two passengers became entangled in live power lines, which resulted in significant power outages throughout the surrounding county as authorities attempted to free the plane and its occupants from the entanglement.

At approximately 5:40 p.m. on Sunday, a single-engine plane that had just taken off from White Plains, New York, was reported to have collided with power lines in the area of Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, according to a statement issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. According to the FAA, there were two individuals aboard.

Pete Piringer, the chief spokesperson for the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service, stated on Twitter that the people on board are uninjured and that rescuers have been in contact with them. The people on board were identified by the Maryland State Police as pilot Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., and passenger Jan Williams, 66, of Louisiana. Both of these individuals were from Louisiana. After initially stating in a video message that there were three individuals on the plane, he then specified that there were only two passengers on board.

Reporters were told by Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein that it would be impossible to begin rescue efforts until 9:30 p.m. or later because not all of the necessary resources would be available until then. However, he did not provide a time estimate for how long it would take after that to bring the people who were on the plane down.

According to Goldstein, utility contractors will initially work to ground the high-tension wires in order to make the area safe for rescue workers to operate in. After that, firefighters will use bucket trucks or a crane to secure the jet to the tower by chaining it or strapping it down using straps and chains. The two people will be brought down to the ground using the crane or the bucket trucks, according to Goldstein, once the plane is in a more solid position. He stated that those responsible for their rescue are keeping in touch with them by telephone on a regular basis to ensure their safety.

The FAA determined that the aircraft in question was a Mooney M20J.

According to Piringer, the plane was stalled approximately 30 meters (100 feet) above the ground, and the transmission cables continued to be active, which made it difficult to rescue anyone.

Pepco, a local utility company, estimated that approximately 80,000 of its customers in Montgomery County were without power. According to Piringer, a significant number of the area’s traffic lights were also broken. The energy company issued a statement saying that before its employees could begin making repairs at the scene of the incident, they were waiting for emergency workers to give them permission to enter the scene.

It took some time to determine what caused the collision. The incident will be looked at by the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA.