Cessna 150 Collides With PA State Police Helicopter at Carlisle Airport, Killing Pilot
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A Cessna 150 collided with a PA State Police helicopter at Carlisle Regional Airport, killing pilot and ER doctor Paul Sokoloski, 57. Here's what we know.
It started as a routine Wednesday evening at a small airport in central Pennsylvania. By 7 p.m., it had turned into one of the more chilling aviation stories to come out of the state in years. On August 19, a Cessna 150 and a Pennsylvania State Police Bell 407 helicopter collided in midair near the runway at Carlisle Regional Airport in Cumberland County. One person died. Two state troopers walked away — barely.
Here's everything we know so far about the crash, the victim, and what investigators are looking at next.
What Happened at Carlisle Regional Airport
Just before 7 p.m, a State Police helicopter crew was going through a routine training exercise, hovering a few feet off the ground near a grassy patch beside the runway. It's the kind of maneuver that happens all the time at small regional airports.
Then a small, two-seat Cessna 150 came in for a landing on that same runway. For reasons investigators still haven't nailed down, the plane veered sharply to the right at the last second — and slammed directly into the back of the hovering helicopter. The impact tore through the helicopter's tail rotor and into its main rotor. Without its blades or tail boom, the aircraft flipped upside down and crashed to the ground, landing partly on its roof. The Cessna broke apart on impact a short distance away. One state police official on scene didn't mince words, describing it simply as an extremely violent crash — and pointing out that from where the helicopter crew was sitting, they likely never saw the plane coming.
Who Was the Pilot? Meet Paul Sokoloski
The pilot of the Cessna, and the only person on board, was identified by the Cumberland County Coroner's Office as 57-year-old Paul Sokoloski of Hershey, Pennsylvania. He died at the scene.
What's striking about Sokoloski's story is just how much life experience he packed in outside the cockpit. By day, he was an emergency room physician with Penn State Health, with a resume that also included stints at Western Maryland Health System and more than a decade with WPA Emergency Medicine Staffing. Before medicine, he served with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard's 193rd Special Operations Group in the security police field from 1989 to 1995. He later earned a biology degree from Penn State in 1991, followed by his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in 1996, and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Jefferson Health. He also held a commercial pilot's license and, according to reports, worked as a certified flight instructor — meaning flying wasn't just a hobby for Sokoloski, it was something he'd built real expertise in over the years.
An autopsy has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 25.
The Troopers Who Survived
Inside the helicopter were Corporal Bryce Corman and Trooper Jason Mills, both part of an elite aviation unit within the Pennsylvania State Police. When the helicopter rolled and crashed, both men were trapped inside. Corman managed to force a window open and pull himself free, then went back to help Mills get out too — all while worried the wreckage could catch fire at any moment. Both troopers were flown to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The good news: their injuries turned out to be relatively minor. Corman has already been released from the hospital, while Mills remains there in stable condition.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro visited both troopers and their families at the hospital that night, calling them essential to the operations of the state police and thanking them, along with the medical staff who treated them.
Why Carlisle Regional Airport Doesn't Have a Control Tower — And Why It Matters
One detail that's drawing attention: Carlisle Regional Airport doesn't have an air traffic control tower. Pilots operating there rely on a shared radio frequency to communicate with each other and coordinate landings, takeoffs, and other movements on the field. That setup is common at smaller regional airports across the country, but it also means there's no outside authority actively directing traffic in real time. Investigators say they've already secured video and photo evidence from the scene, and they'll be combing through radio communications on that shared frequency to piece together exactly what happened in the seconds before impact.
Adding another layer to the story, this reportedly isn't the first serious incident at this airport. Local reporting indicates it's the fifth crash recorded there since 2019, which is likely to raise fresh questions about safety at the facility going forward.
What's Next
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are jointly investigating the crash, with support from Pennsylvania State Police. Governor Shapiro has also reached out to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to request that the FAA move quickly on its response. Given that Carlisle doesn't have a control tower, investigators are expected to lean heavily on that radio traffic and any available video to determine what caused the Cessna to veer off course. A full NTSB report on incidents like this typically takes months to complete. For now, the Carlisle community — and the wider aviation world — is left mourning a doctor who spent his career saving lives, and processing just how close a routine training flight came to a much larger tragedy.
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