MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, Md. (AP) — Crews on Monday rescued the injured pilot and passenger of a small plane that crashed into a Maryland electricity transmission tower, knocking out power for tens of thousands of customers and leaving the aircraft dangling 10 stories off the ground.
“They were anxious,” Goldstein said of the pilot and passenger. “They were concerned about the stability of the aircraft, the stability of the aircraft remaining in the tower structure. They were disoriented to the severity of or the complexity of the circumstances.”
After electrical workers made sure it was safe to try to reach the pilot and passenger, who were in contact with authorities via cellphone and were anxious to be rescued, crews secured the plane to the tower at around 12:15 a.m. Monday and took the two to safety a few minutes later, officials said. The State Police identified the pilot as Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., and the passenger as Janet Williams, 66, of Marrero, Louisiana. Both had serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and hypothermia set in while they waited to be rescued, Goldstein said. Their rescue was faster than anticipated since the pilot and passenger were able to assist, he said.
The utility Pepco reported that power was temporarily cut to about 120,000 customers in Montgomery County, but it was restored to most of them before the people were rescued. Around 11 p.m. 14 major intersections in the county were without power, but less than two hours later traffic signals were operating properly, county police said.
The county’s public school system closed its schools and offices Monday due to the outage’s impact on safety and school operations.
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