Officials say that a small plane crashed into electrical wires in Maryland, leaving at least two individuals suspended around 100 feet in the air. The collision knocked out power to thousands of residents in the region.
Sunday about 5:40 p.m. local time, a single-engine Mooney M20J collided with wires near Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, Maryland, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane was entangled in a web of power lines around 100 feet in the air and appeared to be intact. Pete Piringer, a spokesperson for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, and the FAA first stated that there were two persons aboard the plane, but Piringer later stated in a video from the scene that he suspected there were three individuals trapped within.
As of approximately 6:30 p.m., Piringer reported that the plane’s passengers looked to be largely unharmed, but that they remained in a “very perilous condition” due to the live wires.
Pepco confirmed that the crash affected approximately 85,000 customers and said they are working with authorities to assess the damage.
“We have confirmed that a private plane came into contact with Pepco’s transmission lines in Montgomery County, resulting in an outage to approximately 85,000 customers,” the utility company tweeted. “We are assessing damage and working closely with Montgomery County fire and emergency services.”
The crash will be investigated by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board, with the NTSB leading the investigation and providing additional updates, the FAA said in a statement.
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