Story by
Rachel Kaser
Internet Culture WriterRachel is a writer and former game critic from Central Texas. She enjoys gaming, writing mystery stories, streaming on Twitch, and horseback Rachel is a writer and former game critic from Central Texas. She enjoys gaming, writing mystery stories, streaming on Twitch, and horseback riding. Check her Twitter for curmudgeonly criticisms.
Everyone’s lost their electricity for a little while, but usually it’s because of something mundane — routine maintenance, a lightning strike, an electrocuted squirrel. The residents of Mukilteo, Washington have a more dramatic story, which I might not believe if there weren’t video evidence.
Simon Li uploaded the footage to YouTube, which shows a plane torpedoing through the sky and hitting a power line, which ignites the fuel and causes a massive fireball. According to Gizmodo, it managed to knock out power for 9,000 local residents.
It looks way worse than it actually was. First, the single-engine plane — which lost power shortly after taking off — is tiny.
Plane down no injuries pic.twitter.com/PEYzmooKLk
— Mukilteo Police Dept (@MukilteoPolice) May 2, 2017
Second, the pilot managed to steer the falling plane onto an empty street, where they winged (wink) a couple of parked cars before coming to a stop. Both pilot and passenger walked away unharmed and there are no injuries reported, though the fireball did send a few people running for cover.
It’s great that no one was seriously hurt, but still — that’s a hell of a story to explain how you lost your internet.
Update May 4: This post previously stated Mukilteo was in Oregon, which is not the case, of course. We’ve updated the post to reflect its actual location: Washington.
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