A pilot was killed and two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were injured after a small plane collided in midair with a state police helicopter in central Pennsylvania, authorities said. The deadly crash unfolded at a small regional airport and has drawn federal investigators to the scene.
According to investigators, a Cessna crashed into the helicopter shortly before 7 o'clock the previous evening at Carlisle Regional Airport. The two aircraft came together in the air near the field, in a collision that proved fatal for the person flying the small plane.
The helicopter, which belonged to the state police and was being operated at the time, was struck by the incoming Cessna. The force of the midair impact left the aircraft damaged and sent emergency crews rushing to the airport to respond to the wreck.
The pilot of the small airplane was killed in the collision. Authorities did not immediately release the pilot's identity, and it was not clear whether anyone else had been aboard the plane at the time of the crash.
Two Pennsylvania State Police troopers who were aboard the helicopter were injured in the collision. They were the ones caught up in the impact when the plane struck the aircraft, and their injuries were being treated in the aftermath of the crash.
A key focus of the inquiry is the nature of the airport itself. Carlisle Regional Airport is a small facility with no air traffic control tower and no controllers on site. Instead, planes and helicopters using the airport coordinate their movements with one another over a shared radio frequency.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash. Investigators are expected to examine how the two aircraft ended up in the same airspace, including the communications on the shared frequency that pilots rely on at a field without a control tower.