A pilot was killed and two police officers injured after a light aircraft collided with a hovering police helicopter during a training exercise in Pennsylvania.
The Cessna 150 came up behind the Pennsylvania State Police Bell 407 helicopter at about 6.50pm on Wednesday as it hovered a few feet above grass beside the runway at the Carlisle airport west of Harrisburg. Investigators said the aircraft veered sharply right at the last moment and struck the helicopter's rear tail rotor before entering its main rotor.
"The pilots would not have been able to even see that airplane approaching them," said the state police commissioner, Christopher Paris, who described the crash as very violent.
The Cessna came down a short distance away and broke into several pieces. Its only known occupant died. Police wouldn’t name the pilot until relatives were told.
The helicopter lost its blades and tail boom, rolled over and came to rest on its side and partly on its roof, trapping both officers inside. Corporal Bryce Corman pushed out a window and helped trooper Jason Mills, who was bleeding heavily and appeared badly hurt, to get clear, with both men escaping amid concerns the wreckage might catch fire.
Both were taken to the Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center as major trauma cases, but were found to carry only minor injuries, said Ashley Ludwig, the hospital's trauma medical director. One was expected to be discharged the same night and the other kept in for observation.
"Tonight could have been much worse," governor Josh Shapiro told a press conference at the hospital, praising the response by police, paramedics and hospital staff.
The Carlisle regional airport lacks an air traffic control tower and pilots instead use a shared radio frequency to announce their movements to one another.
Investigators said they would examine what was said on that frequency and state police said they had secured video and photographs that could help reconstruct the collision.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The Federal Aviation Administration sent investigators to the site on Wednesday night and the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to follow suit overnight.
Mr Shapiro said he had asked US transportation secretary Sean Duffy to have the FAA move quickly.
