Pennsylvania State Police Helicopter, Cessna Collide at Carlisle Airport, Killing Pilot

A routine training exercise turned deadly Wednesday evening at Carlisle Regional Airport in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, when a small Cessna 150 collided with a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter, killing the plane's pilot and injuring two troopers.

The collision happened around 6:50 p.m., according to Pennsylvania State Police Acting Commissioner Lt. Col. George Bivens. A Bell 407 helicopter from the state police aviation unit was hovering several feet above a grassy area next to the runway, conducting routine training, when the Cessna came down the runway and "veered hard to the right at the last moment," Bivens said at a news conference.

The plane struck the helicopter from the rear, hitting the tail rotor first and then the main rotor. Bivens called it "a very violent crash." The troopers in the helicopter, he said, never had a chance to see it coming: "The pilots would not have been able to even see that airplane approaching them."

The helicopter lost its blades and tail boom, rolled over, and came to rest on its side, partly on its roof. The Cessna broke apart a short distance away.

Gov. Josh Shapiro identified the two troopers as Corporal Bryce Corman and Trooper Jason Mills, both pilots with the state police aviation unit. Both were initially trapped in the wreckage. Corman pushed out a window and pulled Mills free before first responders arrived, according to Bivens. Mills reportedly had visible bleeding and appeared more seriously hurt at the scene.

Both troopers were taken to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center as Level 1 trauma cases. Dr. Ashley Ludwig, the hospital's trauma medical director, said both ended up with only minor injuries and were listed in stable condition. One trooper was expected to possibly be released the same night; the other was held overnight for observation.

The Cessna's pilot, believed to be the aircraft's only occupant, died at the scene. Authorities have not released his name, pending notification of next of kin. Bivens said confirming that no one else was aboard remains part of the investigation.

"Tonight could have been much worse, tonight could have been much more tragic for our state police family, thank God that it wasn't," Shapiro said at a briefing held at the hospital, adding he had spoken with the troopers' families directly.

Carlisle Regional Airport has a single 4,000-foot runway and no control tower. Pilots there rely on a shared radio frequency to announce their movements to each other, an arrangement common at small, uncontrolled airfields across the country. Investigators plan to review that radio traffic as part of the probe into why the Cessna suddenly cut toward the helicopter.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating, with the state police assisting. The NTSB is treating it as a midair collision and said the wreckage will be documented at the scene before being moved to a secure facility for further examination. No cause has been determined.

Uncontrolled fields depend on pilots seeing each other and communicating clearly. When that breaks down, there's no controller to catch the mistake before it becomes a collision.

CNN noted the crash comes amid heightened scrutiny of shared airspace between helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, pointing to last year's collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people when an Army Black Hawk hit an American Airlines regional jet on approach. The two incidents differ sharply: Reagan National has a control tower and dense commercial traffic, while Carlisle is a small uncontrolled field where a helicopter crew was training on the ground-adjacent grass.

Pennsylvania State Police said in a follow-up statement that the collision occurred while the helicopter was "on the ground," a detail that contrasts with early framing of it as purely a midair event, even though the NTSB itself labeled it a midair collision. Investigators will likely clarify the helicopter's exact position at impact using the video and photographs Bivens said police have already secured.

Shapiro said he asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to have the FAA move quickly on the investigation. No timeline for a preliminary NTSB report has been announced.