Pennsylvania State Police Helicopter, Small Plane Collide in Midair Near Carlisle
Emergency crews rushed to northwestern Cumberland County on Monday night after a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter and a Cessna 150 collided in midair and went down near Carlisle Airport, according to federal aviation authorities.
The crash happened at about 7:50 p.m. local time, close to the airport in Carlisle, a community about 120 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Bell 407 helicopter had two people on board. Officials did not immediately say how many people were aboard the small plane.
“Just a heartbreaking scene unfolding tonight at Carlisle Airport involving a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter,” state Treasurer Stacy Garrity said in a statement. “My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved, their families, and the first responders on the scene. Hoping for the best possible outcome in what is clearly a very serious situation.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he had been briefed on the incident and was headed to the scene. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. NTSB investigators are expected to examine the wreckage, gather flight records and review radar data in an effort to determine how the two aircraft crossed paths near the airport.
The Bell 407, a turbine-powered helicopter commonly used by law enforcement agencies, was assigned to the Pennsylvania State Police. The Cessna 150 is a two-seat single-engine aircraft widely used for flight training and personal travel. A midair collision involving a police aircraft and a civilian plane is rare, but accidents in the busy airspace around smaller airports are especially difficult to reconstruct without a control tower and cockpit voice recorder.
Shapiro said the state would cooperate fully with federal investigators. Additional details, including the number of people on the plane and the circumstances of the flight, were not immediately available.
This is a developing story.