Editor's Note: A person on the plane was killed while the two crew members aboard the Pennsylvania State Police helicopter were injured and flown to a trauma center. 

Madison Montag

pennlive.com

(TNS)

The coroner was called to Carlisle Airport Wednesday night after a midair collision involving a plane and a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter.

911 dispatchers put out the call about the incident shortly before 7 p.m.

Dozens of emergency vehicles, including fire trucks and police vehicles, were at the scene.

A helicopter was flipped on its side next to the runway and was smoking. A small Cessna plane was also visible and a detached propeller was smoking nearby.

Witnesses who live at the townhome development adjacent to the airport said they heard a loud bang and saw plumes of smoke at the time of the crash.

Neighbors Patrick Brown and Lloyd Slusser said they squeezed past a fence and ran into the field to help. They said they saw two troopers in the helicopter and one person in the plane.

Leading up to the crash, the two men said they saw the State Police helicopter flying low, doing maneuvers, which the men said is common at the airport.

Laura Southerland and her 11-year-old son were training at the Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, located about a 1,000 feet from the runway. Her son was in the parking lot at the time and said he saw the helicopter flying low and then heard a “boom.”

“It’s really common to have like a lot of traffic at this airport, like even a couple weeks ago when the president was here,” said Southerland, referring to President Trump’s visit to the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle. “So it’s like a great airport with a lot of traffic, but it’s never had a problem.”

Southerland said she wondered how the two aircraft could have collided.

“Right away we were saying like, even though it’s like a small place and we’re not in like a big city, but they had immediate responders within minutes so that’s fortunate that we have that,” she said. “But [I’m] not sure how the crash could have happened.”

EMS crews were seen loading a patient onto a Life Lion medical helicopter that is based at the airport, witnesses said. A second Life Lion arrived around 7:30 p.m. to retrieve another victim.

Visibility was clear at the airport at the time of the incident.

The airspace around Carlisle Airport has been closed, dispatchers said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro at about 8:30 p.m. said he is headed to Carlisle after being briefed on the crash.

“Lori and I are praying hard and we ask all of our fellow Pennsylvanians to join us,” Shapiro wrote on social media.

The Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA) said a Cessna 150 airplane and a Bell 407 helicopter crashed midair near Carlisle.

The FAA said two people were onboard the helicopter but did not specify how many people were aboard the plane.

“The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB) will investigate. The NTSB will lead the investigation and provide all updates,” the FAA said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Staff writer Tirzah Christopher contributed to this report.

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