The crash resulted in outage for about 85,000 customers, Pepco said at around 6:45 p.m. The utility said it was assessing the damage and was working closely with county emergency services.
The crash occurred near Rothbury Drive and Goshen Road, according to Pete Piringer, the spokesman for the provincial fire and rescue service. The campground is north of Montgomery Village and close to a commercial area.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. It was foggy and rainy in the Washington area on Sunday, and it was unclear if weather played a role.
The plane, described by the FAA in a preliminary report as a single-engine Mooney M20J, took off from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, NY, the FAA said. It touched wires near the Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg at about 5:40 p.m
Photos of the site show the presence of transmission lines and the number of failures indicated transmission lines were involved. But the extent of the damage to the lines and to the towers that support them was not clear.
Pepco was awaiting approval before work could begin to “stabilize electrical infrastructure and restore service,” the utility tweeted at around 6:45 p.m.
The number of utility customers does not reflect the actual number of white collar workers, as a large apartment complex with dozens of residents may be listed as a single customer.
It was not immediately known whether and how many of the customers could be served via other transmission lines or cables. Also unclear was how long might be needed for repairs.
One estimate indicated that the plane hit lines as high as 10 stories. That could not be immediately confirmed.
High-voltage transmission lines are generally supported by lattice-like metal towers a considerable distance above the ground. They serve substations rather than individual buildings, and are at a height significantly higher than neighborhood distribution lines.
