Breaking News: Airplane Crash Power Lines Maryland
A small plane crashed into a transmission tower on Sunday, cutting power to tens of thousands of customers in the area.
The two people on board had to be rescued near the downed plane 100 feet off the ground.
The pilot, Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, and the passenger, Jan Williams, 66, of Louisiana, were rescued after midnight with "serious injuries."
They were both transported to a trauma center Monday afternoon, and they improved. The one person was released Saturday evening.
Early on, fire crews could remove all plane parts from the tower. Firefighters then stabilized the plane with a crane and sectioned it into two pieces.
Then, they lowered the wires separately and carefully, working around high-voltage power lines.
Then, they lowered the wires separately and carefully, working around high-voltage power lines.
The authorities maintained contact with the two people on the stall and tower, speaking once or twice daily to conserve their cellphone battery.
Chief Goldstein did not state the exact injuries of the two people, saying only that there had been a "hypothermia issue" and "orthopedic and trauma injuries from the crash.
By midnight on Sunday, electricity had been restored to the roughly 85,000 customers whose service was directly affected by the crash, Ben Armstrong, a spokesman for Pepco, the energy provider, said on Monday.