page_title: Merion air disaster
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Merion air disaster / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Henry John Heinz III
context_page_description: In southeastern Pennsylvania on April 4, 1991, a Piper Aerostar propeller-driven aircraft collided in mid-air with a Bell 412 helicopter over Merion Elementary School in Lower Merion Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia. All five people in both aircraft were killed including United States Senator John Heinz, the sole passenger of the Piper. Two school children on the ground were also killed by falling debris. In addition to the seven fatalities, five more people on the ground were injured.
  An investigation discovered the cause of the accident to be poor judgment and pilot error of the crews from both aircraft.
caption: U.S. Senator John Heinz
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