Doctor Pilot Killed as Small Plane Collides With Helicopter on Runway

A Pennsylvania doctor died Wednesday after the small plane he was piloting collided with a police helicopter while approaching a runway for landing.

Dramatic video captured the Cessna 150 striking the helicopter in midair as Dr. Paul W. Sokoloski descended toward Carlisle Regional Airport.

Sokoloski, 57, appeared to be attempting to land when the plane drifted off to the side and hit the rear section of a hovering Pennsylvania State Police helicopter, according to the footage.

Police said the Bell 407 helicopter was suspended over a grassy area next to the runway at the time as part of a training operation.

The impact killed Sokoloski, an emergency medicine physician, and left both aircraft broken apart after they fell to the ground.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator said Sokoloski had been performing maintenance on his aircraft before taking off. Investigators are now working to determine whether the Cessna may have experienced a mechanical problem before the crash.

Aaron McCarter, the NTSB investigator in charge, said the plane’s flight path was not typical, and officials are examining why it approached from that direction before making an abrupt turn.

The wreckage will be closely reviewed as investigators assess the aircraft, the decisions and actions of the pilots, and the weather and environmental conditions at the time of the collision.

Sokoloski is an emergency medicine physician at Penn State Health, according to the hospital network’s website.

He had an extensive medical career dating back to the late 1990s and has worked in multiple emergency rooms across the US, his LinkedIn profile showed.

He also spent six years as security police for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. 

A former colleague from his time at the Meritus Medical Center in Maryland said that Sokoloski was a ‘truly special human being.’

Kimberly Rhodes, a nurse practitioner, told WHP that the late doctor was a ‘staple’ of their friend group during his nearly seven-year stint at the hospital.

‘We would start our shift with a hug,’ she said. ‘And some nights were so bad, we all went as a group to one of our local restaurants and had a meat and cheese tray just to decompress. But Paul was a staple to that.’

She hailed him as a compassionate person who would ‘give the shirt off of his back’ to someone in need. 

Rhodes admitted that she knew little about Sokoloski’s personal life, but told the news outlet his children were ‘very special to him’ and that he ‘loved to fly.’ 

Sokoloski held a commercial pilot’s license and was a certified flight instructor, according to his LinkedIn profile.

McCarter said that the helicopter pilot was also a flight instructor. 

There was not a tower to control traffic at the airport, but pilots communicate on a common frequency. 

He said communication was established between the flight crews, and they have strong evidence that Sokoloski was made aware of the helicopter hovering in the area. 

‘I can’t tell you whether or not his visual acuity or whether or not the helicopter was blocked from view,’ McCarter said.

‘I have no information at all to tell me either pilot of either vehicle was at fault. We are very early in the investigation to determine that,’ he added.

The helicopter lost its blades and tail boom and crashed onto its side. 

Both pilots in the helicopter were trapped until one pushed out a window and helped the other out through it, according to Lt Col George Bivens, the state’s acting police commissioner.

‘When I say it was a very violent crash, that plane was cut into a lot of pieces,’ Bivens said.

The helicopter was piloted by Cpl Bryce Corman and Trooper Jason Mills. Both were airlifted to Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center for treatment. 

Corman has been released from the hospital and Mills is recovering in the hospital with a good prognosis, Gov. Josh Shapiro said Thursday.

Sokoloski was the only person aboard the Cessna.