Small plane appeared ‘out of control’ before it collided with Pennsylvania police helicopter, NTSB says

By Alexandra Skores, Aaron Cooper, Karina Tsui, CNN

(CNN) — Investigators say a small Cessna 150 airplane appeared to be “out of control” when it crashed Wednesday evening into the back of a police helicopter at a central Pennsylvania airport.

An experienced pilot who also was an emergency room doctor was killed and two state troopers were injured when the two aircraft collided at Carlisle Regional Airport in Cumberland County, around 120 miles west of Philadelphia, police said.

Friday morning, the NTSB moved the wreckage of the helicopter and the Cessna to a facility where it can be examined. Investigators also recovered memory cards from the electronics in the aircraft, NTSB investigator-in-charge Aaron McCarter said at a news conference.

“What we don’t know is what’s on those data cards, but they were intact,” McCarter said Friday. “That is very good news from a data standpoint.”

Neither aircraft was required to have a cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder, often called “black boxes.”

The incident comes amid increased attention to airspace shared between helicopters and planes since last year’s midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people. In that incident, a US Army Blackhawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet as it was landing.

In Wednesday’s collision, the two-man helicopter crew was on a training flight and doing a common maneuver called a “hover taxi,” flying just above the grass beside the runway when it was hit, McCarter said. At the same time, the Cessna 150 was circling the airport in what investigators described as an “unusual” flight path.

“The video evidence we have showed that it was flying in an unusual attitude. It was in a steep nose, pitch-up, attitude, right wing low. The wings were rocking back and forth,” McCarter said. “Then it temporarily leveled off, and for reasons unknown, flew off the right side of the runway, runway 28, and impacted the helicopter.”

The small plane, with its nose in the air, slammed into the tail and rotor of the helicopter, surveillance video of the moments before the collision shows. The NTSB is reviewing additional videos of the collision

The NTSB will investigate all aspects of the environment, aircraft and people involved in Wednesday’s crash, McCarter said on Thursday. It often takes one to two years before a probable cause of an aviation accident can be determined.

“In terms of the wreckage, there is no clues that we have right now,” he said.

The plane was normally kept at the airport and investigators say the pilot was seen working on it there earlier in the day. They do not know if the maintenance had anything to do with the crash. After the work, the pilot flew the plane and did some training before returning to the airport where his plane hit the helicopter.

Like many small airports, Carlisle does not have an air traffic control tower, so pilots say their intentions on a common radio frequency. Both aircraft had communicated before the crash and were aware of each other, McCarter said.

“There was reciprocal communication between the pilot and the helicopter,” McCarter said on Friday. “That’s all we know. We don’t know the details or the content of that communication, but we do know that they were talking to each other.”

The radio calls were not recorded, however the NTSB is speaking with witnesses who heard what was said before the crash.

The two helicopter pilots were initially trapped inside the wreckage, State Police Acting Commissioner Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a news conference Wednesday. One trooper was able to push out a window and assist the other trooper to free themselves before emergency responders arrived at the scene, he said.

The pilot of the Cessna was identified as Paul Sokoloski, 57, of Hershey, Pennsylvania by the Cumberland County Coroner. He was an experienced pilot with licenses to fly single engine, multiengine, and commercial planes, according to FAA records. His plane was registered at his home address. Sokoloski was also an emergency room doctor at Penn State Health, according to the hospital system.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro identified the two state troopers in the helicopter as State Police Corporal Pilot Bryce Corman and Trooper Pilot Jason Mills.

“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 Wednesday, adding he has been in touch with their families.

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CNN’s Yan Kaner contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had the wrong day for the collision. It was Wednesday.