Two rescued: Plane crashes into Gaithersburg transmission tower
(Two rescued from plane crash, Image credit: YouTube)
Last night, a small private plane crashed into some electrical power lines in in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The plane crashed into a power transmission tower around 5:30 p.m. in the area of Rothbury Drive and Goshen Road in the Montgomery Village area of Gaithersburg, according to Fox 5 News. Two people were on board the plane that was entangled in the power lines about 100 feet above the ground. The small aircraft was a Mooney Mike 20P single engine plane.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, Montgomery County Police, personnel from the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and the Maryland State Police were among those responding to the crash. The tower’s power lines were hot which complicated rescue efforts.
Although earlier reports claimed that the onboard occupants were uninjured, we later learned that the pilot and passenger both sustained “serious injuries.”
The pilot was identified as Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C. The passenger is identified as Jan Williams, 66, of Louisiana. After a torturous six-hour wait, the pair inside the truck were extricated from the crashed plane with the help of a bucket truck.
Just after midnight, emergency personnel safely brought the two people trapped inside the dangling plane to the ground, Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said in a news briefing. Responders took the two plane occupants to a trauma center with serious injuries, Goldstein said. ~ WTOP News
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration also responded. They will conduct investigations into how and why the crash occurred. Further information about the crash will come from federal investigators.
The Federal Aviation Administration has an aircraft restriction in place while rescue efforts are active ongoing. Rothbury Drive and Goshen Road remains closed. Personnel from the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration are on the scene assisting with the road closures.
The crash knocked out power for 85,000 Montgomery County customers for hours, PEPCO said. And just now (7 a.m., November 28,) Maryland State Police announced that the area of Goshen Road and Rothbury Drive remains closed while efforts to remove the plane continue.
For more on the story, see the video accompanying this article.
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
