A midair collision at a Pennsylvania airport killed a small-plane pilot and left two state troopers scrambling from a wrecked helicopter, a crash officials say could have been far deadlier.
A small plane clipped a hovering state police helicopter from behind during a training exercise near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday evening. The pilot didn’t survive. Both troopers inside the helicopter climbed out alive.
The two troopers were trapped inside the helicopter wreckage until one pushed out a window and pulled the other free, Pennsylvania State Police Acting Commissioner Col. George Bivens said.
The Cessna 150 struck the Bell 407 helicopter shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday near the Carlisle airport in Cumberland Valley. Bivens said the helicopter was hovering a few feet above a grassy area next to the runway for a training exercise when the plane approached from behind, veered sharply to the right and hit it from the rear in what he called a “very violent crash.”
The helicopter lost its blades, dropped to the ground and rolled onto its side. The plane crashed a short distance away and broke into multiple pieces.
Gov. Josh Shapiro identified the injured troopers as Cpl. Bryce Corman and Trooper Jason Mills. Both arrived at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center as Level 1 trauma patients but suffered only minor injuries and were in stable condition, said Dr. Ashley Ludwig, the hospital’s trauma medical director. One was expected to be discharged Wednesday night, the other admitted for observation.
“Tonight could have been much worse,” Shapiro said.
Authorities believe the pilot was the plane’s only occupant but have not released a name pending notification of next of kin. Carlisle is an uncontrolled airport with no tower, so aircraft coordinate their movements on a shared radio frequency. The Federal Aviation Administration reached the scene Wednesday night, and the National Transportation Safety Board was expected overnight to investigate the cause.
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