US: Plane crashes into power lines in Maryland; leads to major blackout

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US: Maryland witnessed widespread power outages after officials shut down power to disentangle a small plane got that had gotten stuck in live power lines on Sunday. 

The Federal Aviation Administration said that the single-engine plane crashed into the power lines near Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg around 5:40 p.m. on Sunday. The plane was a Mooney M20J, as identified by the FAA. 

Speaking about the incident, Pete Piringer, Chief spokesperson for the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service, said on Twitter that the people on board are uninjured and that rescuers had been in contact with them. He had at one point said in a video message that three people were on the plane but later clarified that it was two.

The video showed a small white plane positioned nose up near a power tower. A local television station's live video showed the plane remained stuck in the transmission tower after 8 p.m.

The plane was stuck about 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground, and the transmission lines remained live, complicating rescue efforts, Piringer said. “Everything is still energized at this time," he said.

The utility Pepco reported that about 80,000 customers were without power in Montgomery County. Piringer said that many traffic lights were also out in the area. The utility said in a statement that its personnel were waiting for rescuers to clear them to enter the scene before they can make repairs at the site of the crash.

The crash took place in Gaithersburg, a city of 69,000 people about 24 miles (39 kilometers) northwest of Washington, D.C. The cause of the crash wasn't immediately clear. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate what happened.

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