{"id":270194,"date":"2026-08-22T14:24:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T14:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/270194\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T14:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T14:24:28","slug":"pilot-dead-2-troopers-injured-after-small-airplane-pennsylvania-state-police-helicopter-collide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/270194\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot dead, 2 troopers injured after small airplane, Pennsylvania State Police helicopter collide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">SOUTH MIDDLETON TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 A Pennsylvania State Police helicopter and a small airplane collided Wednesday night. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">It happened just before 7 p.m. in South Middleton Township, Cumberland County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The Bell 407GX helicopter was hovering over a grassy area north of the runway at Carlisle Airport when it collided midair with a Cessna 150 single-engine airplane, according to PSP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The Cessna had been trying to land for an unknown reason at the time. PSP says it veered to the runway\u2019s north when it struck the helicopter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Paul William Sokoloski, 57, of Hershey, was the Cessna\u2019s pilot and only occupant. The Cumberland County Coroner\u2019s Office pronounced him dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Sokoloski was an emergency medicine physician for Penn State Health, <a href=\"https:\/\/wjactv.com\/news\/local\/doctor-paul-sokoloski-pilot-killed-crash-state-police-helicopter-identified-penn-state-health-airport-troopers-flight-instructor-cumberland-county-pennsylvania\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/wjactv.com\/news\/local\/doctor-paul-sokoloski-pilot-killed-crash-state-police-helicopter-identified-penn-state-health-airport-troopers-flight-instructor-cumberland-county-pennsylvania\">NBC affiliate WJAC reports<\/a>, citing the health system\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Piloting the helicopter were Corp. Bryce Corman and Tpr. Jason Mills, who were flown to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Corman has since been released, though Mills remains there in stable condition, PSP says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with the Federal Aviation Administration and assistance from PSP Troop H\u2019s Major Case Team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Gov. Josh Shapiro responded to the crash scene shortly after learning of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Attorney General Dave Sunday also sent support to the people involved in the crash. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Treasurer Stacy Garrity also expressed concern and support for everyone involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH MIDDLETON TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 A Pennsylvania State Police helicopter and a small airplane collided Wednesday night. It&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,757],"class_list":["post-270194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-wpxi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270194","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=270194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}