Cessna pilot killed, two helicopter occupants injured in Wednesday night crash
Aaron McCarter, the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigator-in-charge, called the recovery of the cards “very good news from a data standpoint” during a Friday morning media briefing in Carlisle. The cards will be examined over the weekend.
Investigators are working to determine what caused the Cessna to clip the helicopter during takeoff Wednesday night, McCarter said. The Cessna’s pilot was killed in the collision, and two people inside the state police helicopter were injured. The collision occurred at a small airport in Carlisle, in central Pennsylvania.
McCarter noted during the briefing that neither aircraft was required to carry a cockpit voice recorder — equipment found on larger aircraft.
Investigators do not yet know what flight information the cards contain. “We don’t know exactly what kind of parameters are on these data cards, but in some cases we get fortunate” and the cards hold robust data, McCarter said.