A midair collision between a Cessna 150 and a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter near Carlisle Airport killed the small plane's pilot and injured two state troopers, an incident investigators say they are far from explaining.
The crash happened around 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19, when the single-engine Cessna veered sharply to the right during its approach and slammed into the tail of a Bell 407 helicopter hovering just a few feet off the ground beside a runway. The helicopter, part of the state police aviation unit, was conducting a routine training exercise. The impact tore the helicopter's main rotor blades and tail boom away and sent the aircraft crashing onto its side. The Cessna was cut apart by the force of the collision, according to Lt. Col. George Bivens, acting commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police.
The pilot of the Cessna, later identified as Paul William Sokoloski, 57, was the plane's sole occupant. He did not survive. The two troopers aboard the helicopter, Corporal Pilot Bryce Corman and Trooper Pilot Jason Mills, were trapped inside the wreckage and escaped by pushing out a window. Both were airlifted to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and are expected to recover. One was potentially released the same night.
Bivens: 'That plane was cut into a lot of pieces'
Bivens did not hold back about the severity of the crash. He told reporters:
"When I say it was a very violent crash, that plane was cut into a lot of pieces."
Bivens also noted that the helicopter crew had no chance to react. The Cessna struck the Bell 407 from behind while it hovered low over a grassy area near the runway. He said the pilots "would not have been able to even see that airplane approaching them."
Gov. Josh Shapiro addressed the incident, focusing on the survival of the two troopers. He said:
"I'm pleased to say that after an aviation accident, two Pennsylvania State Troopers, while injured, are going to be okay."
Shapiro added that the night "could've been much more tragic for our state police family."
The collision is the latest in a series of dangerous airborne incidents involving law enforcement aircraft. In New Mexico, Bernalillo County paid $2 million to families of first responders killed in a preventable helicopter crash, underscoring how thin the margin is for officers who fly.
Sokoloski had been warned about the hovering helicopter
Investigators revealed an early detail that raises pointed questions about the moments before impact. The NTSB said Sokoloski had done maintenance on the Cessna before the flight and had been made aware of the hovering helicopter via radio communication. Despite that warning, the Cessna circled the airport on what witnesses described as an unusual flight path, nose high, right wing low, wings rocking, before veering sharply right and striking the helicopter from behind.
Aaron McCarter, the NTSB investigator in charge, cautioned against rushing to assign blame.
"I have no information at all to tell me either pilot of either vehicle was at fault. We are very early in the investigation to determine that."
The NTSB has taken the lead on the inquiry, with the FAA in a supporting role. Standard procedure calls for examining the wreckage, reviewing radar and communications data, interviewing witnesses, and reconstructing the flight paths of both aircraft. A preliminary report is expected within a few weeks. A full report with findings could take many months.
Midair threats to police helicopters are not limited to fixed-wing aircraft. In Los Angeles, a drone struck an LAPD helicopter in flight during a brush fire response, a reminder that the skies around emergency operations carry risks from multiple directions.
Carlisle Airport sits about 110 miles northwest of Philadelphia
Carlisle Airport, located in Cumberland County in Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley, is a small general-aviation field roughly 110 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The Cessna 150 is one of the most common piston-engine airplanes ever built, a light, two-seat trainer familiar to flight schools across the country. The Bell 407 is a single-engine turbine helicopter used widely by law enforcement and emergency services.
The collision's violence left little intact. The helicopter lost its blades and tail boom and ended up on its side. The Cessna was reduced to scattered debris. That the two troopers survived at all, trapped in a wrecked helicopter, forced to climb out through a window, speaks to the narrow line between a bad night and a catastrophic one.
Incidents that injure or kill officers in the line of duty carry weight beyond the immediate facts. Earlier this year, an Army soldier suffered severe injuries at a White House checkpoint shooting, another sudden event that put uniformed personnel in harm's way without warning.
Key questions the NTSB has yet to answer
Several critical gaps remain. Investigators have not said whether Sokoloski held a valid pilot certificate and medical certificate at the time of the flight. They have not disclosed what, if any, flight plan the Cessna was operating under beyond the radio advisory about the helicopter. Whether the training exercise was conducted under a specific airspace reservation or formal notice to airmen has not been addressed.
The behavior of the Cessna, nose high, wings rocking, a sudden sharp turn into the helicopter, suggests something went wrong aboard the plane before impact. But "appeared to be out of control" is not the same as a finding, and investigators were careful to say no probable cause has been determined.
Two troopers are alive because a helicopter built to absorb punishment held together long enough for them to escape. One civilian pilot is dead. The answers that matter, why the Cessna flew the way it did, whether anyone could have prevented the collision, and what the radio exchange actually contained, are months away. Until then, the facts speak plainly enough on their own.
