Injured Occupants Rescued After Mooney Tangles With Power Lines (Updated)

The two occupants of a Mooney M20J that crashed into high voltage power transmission tower in Maryland Sunday were rescued just after midnight Monday and suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The 65-year-old male pilot and 66-year-old female passenger spent almost seven hours stranded in the aircraft as it dangled from the powerline and tower. The crash occurred about 6 p.m. As many as 120,000 people were without power while a complicated effort was launched to rescue the occupants. Power was restored to most before midnight as crews isolated the section of line affected by the crash.

According to media reports from the scene, the first order of business was to secure the plane to a transmission tower. Meanwhile a large bucket truck was summoned to pluck the occupants out of the aircraft. Rescuers were in contact with the occupants by cellphone. The aircraft took off from Westchester County Airport in New York and was bound for Montgomery Air Park, which is about two miles from the accident scene.