Plane Crashes into Power Lines; 80,000 Without Electricity [VIDEO]

Two people were trapped for seven hours inside a small plane entangled in live wires about 100 feet from the ground after it crashed into powerlines in Maryland Sunday evening.

The single-engine aircraft crashed into the high-tension wires near Goshen Road and Rothbury Drive as it prepared its descent towards Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg around 5:30 p.m., authorities said.

The pilot and passenger were rescued around 12:30 a.m. in what emergency personnel called a “Herculean effort” and rushed to local trauma centers for serious injuries. Officials said they suffered trauma-related injuries as well as hypothermia, but are expected to survive.

“[The two people aboard the plane] seem to be okay at this time, however, they’re in a very precarious situation due to the fact that they are dangling about 100 feet up and everything’s still energized,” Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Services chief spokesperson Pete Piringer said from the scene before the rescue.

The collision left tens of thousands of people in the area without power Sunday night.

According to the local energy supplier, Pepco, 85,000 to 90,000 homes and businesses were affected by the “widespread” outages in Montgomery County. More than 125 traffic lights were out, two hospitals were functioning at limited capacity and several elevators were also affected, Piringer said.