The pilot of a small plane was killed on Wednesday after what is being described as a violent collision with a State Police helicopter near a runway at a small airport. The crash happened at the small airport in Carlisle, about 170 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, The Associated Press reported.
The Cessna 150, a two-seat tricycle-gear general aviation airplane that is typically used as a trainer aircraft, was coming down on the runway and veered into the Bell 407 helicopter that was near the ground.
“As that Cessna came down along that runway for an unknown reason, it veered hard to the right. At the last moment, it struck the helicopter from the rear,” Lt. Col. George Bivens, the state’s acting police commissioner, said.
‘Violent collision’
According to Bivens, both of the pilots in the helicopter were trapped until one pushed out a window and helped the other out through it.
The pilots, who are from the police’s elite aviation unit and had been performing a training exercise, are stable.
“The corporal was in a position to push out a window and assist the trooper, who he believed had some more serious injuries and had a lot of bleeding, was able to assist him out through that window and got both of them out of the helicopter,” Bivens was quoted as saying by AP.
“When I say it was a very violent crash, that plane was cut into a lot of pieces,” he said, explaining that part of the investigation will be making sure the pilot was the only person on board. He said the helicopter lost its blades and tail boom and crashed onto its side.
“Tonight could’ve been much worse,” said Gov. . “Tonight could’ve been much more tragic for our state police family.”
Officials are not releasing information about the person who died in the crash until the person’s next of kin are informed.
FAA, NTSB to probe
Photos and video on social media showed a helicopter on its side near aircraft debris in a field and a line of emergency vehicles near Carlisle.
According to Bivens, Carlisle Regional Airport does not have a control tower but uses a common traffic radio frequency.
“There was some communication on that frequency. We’ll have to, as part of the investigation, sort all of that out,” he said.
Authorities said the (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), supported by the Pennsylvania State Police, were investigating the incident.
