{"id":269532,"date":"2026-08-21T14:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269532\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T14:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:18:13","slug":"newly-released-video-shows-moment-small-plane-crashes-into-pennsylvania-state-police-helicopter-at-carlisle-regional-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269532\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly released video shows moment small plane crashes into Pennsylvania State Police helicopter at Carlisle Regional Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

CARLISLE, Pa. (WPVI) — The NTSB plans to give another update Friday on the investigation into the deadly crash between a small plane and a State Police helicopter in Central Pennsylvania.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Cessna 150 airplane crashed into the Bell 407 helicopter, which was conducting a training exercise, shortly before 7 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police Acting Commissioner Col. George Bivens told reporters at a press briefing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Federal investigators are examining newly released video showing the collision. Action News has paused at the moment of impact.<\/p>\n

\"Newly<\/p>\n

Newly released video shows exactly how the Cessna plane crashed into the chopper on Wednesday at Carlisle Airport in Cumberland County.<\/p>\n

It shows exactly how the Cessna plane crashed into the chopper on Wednesday at Carlisle Airport in Cumberland County.<\/p>\n

A state police colonel and a trooper were initially trapped in the helicopter wreckage but were able to escape.<\/p>\n

The pilot of the Cessna was killed. He has been identified as 57-year-old Paul Sokoloski<\/a>, of Hershey, a doctor who worked at Penn State Health.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Penn State Health said Sokoloski was a “valued member of our emergency medicine team.”<\/p>\n

Sokoloski was also a certified flight instructor, National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge Aaron McCarter told reporters during a briefing on Thursday.<\/p>\n

McCarter said the helicopter had done what’s known as a “hover taxi,” several feet off the ground, and had started to go off to the side of the runway when the collision occurred.<\/p>\n

“When he comes off the runway, that’s when the Cessna came in, straight level, suddenly increased its pitch, severe nose up,” McCarter said. The plane turned and leveled off, then “flew into the back of the helicopter,” he continued.<\/p>\n

“Right now we don’t know the details about why the pilot was flying in that pattern, altitude or in that manner. But we are going to find out,” McCarter said.<\/p>\n

Officials say there is evidence that both pilots were in contact with each other.<\/p>\n

The crash was “very violent,” according to Pennsylvania State Police Acting Commissioner Col. George Bivens. The Cessna crashed a short distance away and broke into multiple pieces, and the helicopter lost its blades before crashing into the ground and rolling onto its side, he said.<\/p>\n

McCarter addressed the ” dramatic” online videos showing the crash, saying, “So we see the outcome, but we want to understand why it happened.”<\/p>\n

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.<\/p>\n

McCarter said the NTSB’s investigation into the “catastrophic” crash will look at “the man, the machine, the environment.” He said witnesses have reported that the Cessna pilot had been conducting maintenance on his aircraft a day prior to the crash at the Carlisle airport, and that investigators will examine the maintenance records to better understand what work was being done.<\/p>\n

“I’m not saying the maintenance had anything to do with it. That was just one of the factors,” McCarter said.<\/p>\n

The pilot had flown south for several hours to conduct some type of training on Wednesday before returning to Carlisle, he said.<\/p>\n

The Carlisle airport is uncontrolled, meaning there is no air traffic control tower or controllers on site. Planes and helicopters coordinate their movements on a shared frequency that everyone can hear.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARLISLE, Pa. (WPVI) — The NTSB plans to give another update Friday on the investigation into the deadly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113680,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-269532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-113680","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}