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Two people were extricated from a small plane early Monday in Maryland, several hours after they crashed into power lines, causing widespread outages in the surrounding county.
Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said the plane was secured to the tower at 12:16 a.m., and the first occupant was removed from the plane at 12:25 a.m. The second occupant was out at 12:36 a.m.
Goldstein did not say which of the men, identified by Maryland State Police as pilot Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., and passenger Jan Williams, 66, of Louisiana, were rescued first from the plane that was stuck about 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground.
He said both men suffered “serious injuries” from the crash and that hypothermia was also an issue. Both men were transported to local trauma centers with non-life threatening injuries, Goldstein said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the single-engine plane, which had departed White Plains, New York, crashed into a power line tower near Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg around 5:40 p.
