Two unidentified people died Thursday night when the helicopter they were flying in crashed into a yard in a residential section of Silver Spring Township.
Cumberland County Coroner Charles Hall, as well as police, confirmed the deaths.
Police said it was not a medical helicopter.
The aircraft came down in the yard of a home along Surrey Lane in Silver Spring Township. There was no significant damage to homes, but there was debris in several yards, Cumberland County Public Information Office John Bruetsch said.
Residents began calling police around 8:30 p.m., reporting that they heard a loud crash and that they saw pieces of an aircraft scattered across their yard.
Patty Martin, who lives about two blocks from the scene, said she was in the living room with her family when she heard a helicopter overhead, then a popping sound. She said her family realized the sounds weren’t normal, so they went out to find out what happened.
“It sounded like the propellers,” Martin said, but her husband didn’t believe her at first. But she insisted that someone might be hurt, and because she knew CPR, she wanted to see if someone needed help.
Martin said helicopters are heard around the neighborhood from time to time, even remembering years ago when she moved in that she thought she heard planes flying over and it crossed her mind that a crash could happen. But she eventually forgot about it.
“It was very scary,” Martin said. “Praying for the families."
The FAA is on the way to the scene.
Several crashes involving aircraft have taken place in central Pennsylvania in the past few months. A helicopter went down at the Bloomsburg Fair on Sept. 28, sending three people to the hospital. Nearly a dozen vehicles were damaged as a result of the crash, but no one on the ground was hurt.
About a week later, on Oct. 4, a single-engine plane made an emergency landing in the river between Three Mile Island and the Harrisburg International Airport. It remained there for almost two weeks before a helicopter from Anglin Aircraft Recovery pulled it out of the water, took it to Harrisburg International Airport to be disassembled and eventually took it to the company’s facility in Clayton, Delaware.
Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
———
©2020 The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.)
Visit The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.) at www.pennlive.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
