An airplane pilot died Wednesday after a violent collision with a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter near a runway at a small airport, but both state troopers aboard the helicopter survived, authorities said.

The plane was coming down on the runway and veered into the helicopter that was near the ground, Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens, the state''s acting police commissioner, said during a news conference. The FAA and NTSB called it a midair collision but state police didn''t clarify if the plane was off the ground.