All five people in both aircraft were killed, including United States Senator John Heinz, the sole passenger of the Piper.

[1] John Heinz's aircraft departed from Williamsport Regional Airport (IPT) in central Pennsylvania on the morning of April 4, 1991, at about 10:22 a.m.

Approximately three minutes later, the plane executed a low pass near the tower; the controller reported to the crew that the nose gear appeared to be extended.

The NTSB said that the helicopter crew should have also realized the futility of the task due to the inherent difficulty of seeing fine detail while looking upwards through the Bell's front windshields.

[1]: 15, 16  The Bell was equipped with overhead windows, but the operator had painted them over because light flicker from the main rotor had caused pilots to experience vertigo.

[1]: 4 The NTSB criticized the Piper flight manual for lacking explicit procedures to follow if the nose gear indicator light would not illuminate.

[1]: 6  The NTSB said that aerodynamic forces tend to pull aircraft toward one another when one flies immediately above another, and assertive flight control corrections may be required to counteract this; although radar data was inadequate to determine if such an event had in fact occurred, Bell Helicopter engineers confirmed that the 412SP is subject to this tendency.

The NTSB recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) make a more concerted effort to train pilots to recognize such hazardous situations and exercise better judgment.

[10] News of Heinz's death at age 52 shocked fellow lawmakers: The crash received multi-national attention, with reports appearing in multiple regions including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia.