Please hurry’: In 911 call, pilot in Md. plane crash cites visibility issues

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Recordings of the 911 calls the pilot and his passenger made shortly after they crashed Sunday offer new details about the 10-hour ordeal

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From the cockpit, Patrick Merkle estimated his aircraft had ended up 60 to 100 feet off the ground

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pinned to a power line at a 45-degree angle. Twenty minutes after the crash, with no ladder on-site or rescuers

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climbing up, he and his passenger considered exiting the plane and jumping onto the tower.

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“I just moved the panel that gives us enough room to get out,” Merkle, 66, calmly told the 911 dispatcher. “I think it’s safer outside.”

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His single-engine plane became entangled in power lines in Montgomery County

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about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, and he worried that the aircraft would become

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dislodged from the tower. The plane already was shifting with

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