SPEARFISH - Ron Tietjen was making one final buzz over the Spearfish countryside in his ultralight aircraft when he made a bigger buzz by accidentally crashing into an overhead electrical transmission line.

Tietjen, 51, of Spearfish was getting ready to set the plane down at his nearby residence after more than two hours of flying Thursday morning.

However, when he flew into a web of power lines, he started a chain reaction that knocked out electricity across three Northern Hills counties.

There are nine high-voltage lines running east-west on double-pole transmission structures north of Spearfish. The lines, which hang 20 to 50 feet above the ground, were twisted in the crash.

Construction crews, working only yards away in the Higgins Reserve housing development, saw the crash and immediately summoned authorities.

During the 90-minute outage, any electrically-powered equipment without a backup generator came to a stop, including intersection signal lights and fuel pumps.

Barbara Zar, spokeswoman for Black Hills Power, said the ultralight hit transmission lines leading out of the Lookout Substation on U.S. Highway 85 north of Spearfish.

She said everywhere in the Northern Hills was without power except Lead and Deadwood.

"We're very relieved to hear the pilot was up and walking around," Zar said. "Mostly, we're just grateful the pilot is OK."

Tietjen talked briefly to the Lawrence County Journal moments after the accident but declined to give his name at that time.

He said he earned a pilots license in 1991 but got away from flying planes in 1998. He started flying ultralights a few years ago.

"I've flown over this (power line) so many times, but it creeps up on you fast when you're flying low," Tietjen said.

Other agencies that responded to the incident included the Spearfish Police Department, Spearfish Emergency Ambulance Service, Butte County Sheriff's Office, and Lawrence County Emergency Management. The Spearfish Police Department is continuing to investigate the incident, which happened within the Spearfish city limits.

Black Hills Power and Butte Electric responded and restored power to the areas.

Janice Vaplon was unfazed by the outage because she and her husband installed an emergency generator only days ago. They recently bought Serenity Corner Assisted Living a few miles north of the crash site and decided to install a generator for just such an occasion.

Newell canceled school because of the outage, but chief executive officer Tim McCann said sending students home was not an easy task. "The biggest headache was trying to get ahold of parents," McCann said. School officials had a difficult time contacting parents because the power outage was widespread. Officials considered not canceling classes, but the school couldn't get any information about when power would be restored, McCann said. Classes will resume today.

Local banks delayed opening their doors until electric service was restored.

Spearfish schools superintendent Dave Peters said the biggest concern during the outage was food. Lunch-service personnel planned to either serve second breakfasts or gather sandwich fixings from local stores. Without phone service, sending a few thousand students home wasn't a good idea, Peters said. Parents couldn't be notified of a dismissal.

"We dealt with it and knew the kids were going to be okay," Peters said.

Cell phones were a vital communications link for most local agencies during the outage.

Spearfish public-works communications shut down because of the power outage, so crews relied on cell phones to talk to one another while monitoring intersections where stoplights were also disabled.

Machinery at the Spearfish water-treatment plant operated on backup power systems, and all facilities were re-set when power was restored.

A few sewage lift stations needed their monitoring systems restarted, according to Spearfish public-works director Cheryl Johnson. Spearfish City Hall telephones didn't work after power came back on, but technicians repaired the problem, which might have been a blown circuit from a power surge.

"Everything went on as usual. We are very prepared in our school district for an emergency sort of situation," Belle Fourche schools superintendent Bill O'Dea said.

School buildings have generators that kicked the emergency lights on, and water service for restrooms and kitchens was uninterrupted. "And we also have some gas ovens as backups for our electric, so we can continue preparing our food," O'Dea said.

With windows in all the regular classrooms, ample light wasn't an issue, O'Dea said. "If it was going to be out the entire day, we might have to look at some alternatives, but by and large, we are prepared for electrical outages."

The electrical outage in Belle Fourche may have shut down most operations at city hall, but the timing worked out well.

A birthday party for one staff member had been planned for a morning coffee break, and Nora Erhart had her cake delivered a bit before it was expected.

Belle Fourche public works director Dirk Hoffman reported no problems from the power outage. Backup systems worked well, he said, and workers switched to tasks that didn't need electricity.

Belle Fourche Post & Bee Editor Milo Dailey and Rapid City Journal reporter Katie Brown contributed to this story.