Troopers Paul A. Perry and James Mattaliano were en-route with two passengers from a heliport bound for the Massachusetts State Police station at Norwood. Some six minutes after receiving clearance from Boston ATC, at 0933 hours, the helicopter crashed into the Harvard Sailing Pavilion on the Cambridge side of the Charles River next to the MIT Sloan School. The two civilian passengers from AT&T, Arthur T. Howell and Michael McCarthy, were also killed.

Trooper Perry was a graduate of the 63rd Recruit Training Troop and a 14 year member of the State Police. Prior to the Air Wing, he spent the bulk of his career in Troop A. He additionally held a degree in law and had just started a law practice with his wife Carol at the time of his death.