‘Cut Into A Lot Of Pieces’: Plane Collides Into Police Helicopter, Leaving 1 Dead In ‘Very Violent Crash’

One individual died following a midair collision between a civilian plane and a police helicopter at a Pennsylvania airport Wednesday night.

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The pilot of the plane, identified as 57-year-old Paul Sokoloski, a doctor at Penn State Health and certified flight instructor, was killed in the collision. Two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were injured and sent to the hospital for treatment, according to CBS 21 News. (RELATED: Pentagon Hunts For New Radar As Hypersonic Missiles Put US Defenses To The Test)

Democrat Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said that he had visited the families of the state officers, Pilot Bryce Corman and Trooper Pilot Jason Mills, adding that he was praying for the family of Sokoloski, who he said had been flying a Cessna 150.

While coming down the runway of the small airport in Carlisle, the Cessna 150 veered into the helicopter hovering just above the ground in what the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration have called a midair collision, according to the Associated Press.

“For an unknown reason, it veered hard to the right at the last moment,” Lt. Col. George Bivens, the state’s acting police commissioner, said in a press briefing. “It struck the helicopter from the rear. The pilots would not have been able to even see that airplane approaching them.”

“When I say it was a very violent crash, that plane was cut into a lot of pieces,” Bivens said, adding that the helicopter had lost its blades and tail boom.

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The state troopers were trapped in the helicopter until one was able to push a window out and help the other officer out of the wreckage, according to Bivens.

“Tonight could’ve been much worse,” Shapiro said at the briefing. “[The collision] could’ve been much more tragic for our state police family.”

Shapiro, Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy all invited people to pray for the survivors and the families of those involved.

Duffy also committed to aiding Shapiro in the NTSB’s investigation of the incident.

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