Pilot Who Crashed Into Electrical Tower Struggled With Weather: NTSB

GAITHERSBURG, MD — A pilot who crashed his small plane into an electrical transmission tower told investigators poor visibility that night hindered his ability to judge the location of the airport he was headed to and how low his aircraft was before the accident.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said pilot Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., did not follow guidance from air traffic control, while weather conditions were poor with clouds at 200 feet above ground level and 1.25 miles visibility in fog.

Merkle was flying a Mooney Mike 20P single engine plane. Merkle and passenger Jan Williams, 66, of Marrero, Louisiana, were stuck for about hours roughly 100 feet off the ground. They suffered exposure and serious injuries, authorities said.

The FAA told WTOP the plane left the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, en route to Montgomery County Airpark.

During a conversation with 911 call center personnel while the airplane remained suspended in
the tower, the pilot reported, “I got down a little lower than I should have… I thought I was
closer to the airport than I was. …We could see the ground, but we couldn’t see in front.”

An air traffic controller instructed Merkle several times to change his course as he approached the airport. However, the pilot “made a series of left and right turns, near course reversals, or continued established headings as the controller repeatedly requested that the pilot turn to a different heading,” the report said.

• Read the full preliminary NTSB report on the crash online.

At one point, Merkle told the controller he had entered information incorrectly and was making a correction, the NTSB said.

When air traffic control cleared Merkle for an approach to the airport, the airplane turned 100 degrees to its right, WTOP reported.

In interviews with media after the accident, the pilot described the fog at the time of the
accident as “pea soup,” the NTSB said, and Merkle expressed concern about his altimeter working correctly.

A mechanic tested the damaged plane's altimeter under the supervision of an NTSB investigator, and found the device was “well within the test allowable error at all ranges."

The crash knocked out power to nearly 100,000 Pepco customers that night and caused all Montgomery County public schools and offices, and all Montgomery College campuses, to close Nov. 28.

The pair were trapped for nearly eight hours until the plane was tied down to the tower and both occupants were rescued.

The crash happened about 6 p.m. four miles northwest of near Rothbury Drive and Goshen Road, county officials said.