Police helicopter and small plane collide in the air near Pennsylvania airport

By Aaron Cooper, CNN

(CNN) — A state police helicopter and a small plane collided in midair near a central Pennsylvania airport Wednesday evening, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the state’s governor.

The Bell 407 helicopter was approaching the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, airport from the east when it collided with a Cessna 150 airplane circling the field, according to open source flight tracking information from ADS-B Exchange.

The wreckage of the helicopter with the state police emblem could be seen laying on its side near the airport’s runway in video from CNN affiliate WPMT.

There has been increased attention to airspace shared between helicopters and planes since last year’s midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people. In that crash, a US Army Blackhawk helicopter collided with a American Airlines regional jet as it was landing.

In Wednesday’s collision in Pennsylvania, two officers were on the helicopter, but it was not clear how many people were on the plane, the FAA said. The conditions of everyone involved have not yet been released.

“I’ve been briefed on the aircraft crash involving @PAStatePolice this evening in Carlisle and I am heading there now,” Gov. Josh Shapiro posted to social media. “Lori and I are praying hard and we ask all of our fellow Pennsylvanians to join us.”

Carlisle airport is about 20 miles west of Harrisburg and has a single 4,000 foot long runway. There is no control tower at the field so pilots communicate their intentions on a common radio frequency, an arrangement common at small airports.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA will investigate the crash. A final determination on the probable cause of an accident usually takes one to two years.

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CNN’s Yan Kaner and Alexandra Skores contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had the wrong day for the collision. It was Wednesday.