Officials: 'Best outcome' after two rescued from small aircraft crash into transmission tower

BALTIMORE - A pilot and passenger are recovering after spending about seven hours dangling in their small aircraft in a power transmission tower.

A single-engine Mooney M20J crashed into Pepco tower lines near Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg around 5:40 p.m. Sunday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.  

Maryland State Police identified the occupants of the plane as pilot Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., and passenger Jan Williams, 66, of Louisiana. 

First responders learned of their predicament after receiving a 911 call from the pilot.

"I've flown into a tower to the North West of Gaithersburg airport," the pilot told a 911 operator. "It is one of the uh electrical towers and believe it or not the aircraft is pinned in the tower, and I don't know how long we are going to be able to stay here, and I don't know."

The plane's occupants were rescued roughly seven hours later, around 12:30 a.m., with Williams being brought down from the plane first, followed shortly after by Merkle.  

Officials said the original flight plan was intended to be from a location in NY to Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Officials said they were rescued from the plane around 12:30 a.m.

As of Monday afternoon, one of the two remains in the hospital, but they are both expected to recover.

"Aircraft struck north tower before it collided and became embedded in the structure of the south tower," Montgomery Co. Fire and Rescue PIO Pete Piringer said. "They are banged up because they were in a crash, but they are OK."

Officials said the plane crashed into the wires of the north tower and ended up getting entangled in the south tower, knocking out power throughout the area.

"I want to thank our customers for their patience as we work to restore service," said Pepco Region President Donna Cooper. "One of the things we had to do was make sure this zone was safe and secure. That took grounding to make sure there was no residual power, de-energizing the original power source in the area as well."

Pepco said tens of thousands of customers lost power while two people were dangling about 10 stories off the ground.

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 plane was lowered to the ground around 4 a.m. revealing a crushed front end.

"The resources were here for the safety of the two in the aircraft, the safety of the utility workers on site and the safety of the fire and rescue personnel on-site," Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein ."That was complicated by the high voltage power that was being transmitted or was part of this transmission system. As I outline the static or residual, we were talking to the two people in the airplane to give them reassurance as well as touch base on their status and their condition."

Piringer said the two in the plane initially called 911 operators after the crash who kept them on the line for an extended amount of time before connecting them with emergency responders.

Goldstein said the two were anxious and concerned about the stability of the plane.

"They were anxious, concerned about the stability of the aircraft remaining in the tower structure," he said. "They were disoriented to the severity or complexity of the circumstances. We provided updates, established a dialogue and that begins our medical assessment of them."

Piringer added that it was concerning whether the aircraft was going to stay up in the wires.

"There was no point we were certain the plane wasn't going to fall," Piringer said. "Throughout the whole incident, we were concerned the plane was going to shift.

But in the end, the two were freed without injuries to the occupants in the aircraft, electricity crews and emergency responders.

"The outcome was the best outcome you could have," Piringer said. "They were very fortunate they survived. Thinking of the environment, they had a high-angle rescue, a crash, an extrication and transport to the hospital."

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.