Posted on 04/09/2013 8:28:52 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – Texting while flying may have been a major factor in the 2011 crash of an emergency medical helicopter, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigators. Pilot James Freudenbert died along with three other people when he crashed in Missouri after running out of fuel. The NTSB, implicating distraction caused by cell phone use in a commercial aviation crash for the first time, found that Freudenbert sent and received seven messages during the flight, Bloomberg reports.
Freudenbert, who was arranging dinner with a coworker, was breaking company rules by using an electronic device while at the controls. "This is a classic example of dividing attention in a way that compromises safety," says a psychology professor who has studied the distraction caused by mobile devices. He says that when he gives talks on distracted driving, he asks drivers how they would feel about an airline pilot calling to make dinner reservations while preparing to land. "Curiously enough, here is a situation in which that ludicrous example occurred."
FGS! He should have been aware that he didn’t have enough fuel to reach his destitution before he took off.
“Guess where I am?”
I’m against texting while driving but I don’t think the texting had anything to do with the plane running out of fuel which is apparently what really caused the crash.
i agree... seven texts are not enough to make one unaware that he is running out of fuel... shouldn't he have known even before he took off?
Probably using and obamaphone....
I wonder if the fuel warning system didn’t function as it should. Heck you’d think there would be alarms ringing along with some kinda of flashing device but them I’m not a pilot so this is only speculation.
Did I read that right? Was he flying a helicopter? That requires both hands pretty much all of the time, doesn’t it?
First rule of piloting: Fly the aircraft.
I woud be checking into who was responsible for refuelingthe helicopter. But even if that is someone other than the pilot it always pays to look at the gauge.
Still I don’t really believe in texting. Why not just call.
Texting, would be considered a causal factor, but the aircraft undoubtedly had a low fuel light. There isn’t much info on the mishap, like what kind of helicopter it was, but every turbine powered airplane and helicopter I’ve flown in has low fuel lights.
Not entirely true, depending on the aircraft and flight controls. You can friction down the collective and some systems have a forc trim on the cyclic, allowing the pilot some relief in cruise flight. However, attempting to text message and being at the flight controls at the same time is generally a bad idea, especially at low altitudes. That’s what co-pilots are for.
-PJ
Maybe Weird Al Franken and other brilliant senators can pass another law banning this practice.
Unless he was reading and sending opus magnums or the fuel tank was the size of a teacup there is no way seven text messages caused him not to notice that he was running low on fuel.
Only thing that I have stick time in was R-22s, and that was a long time ago. That REQUIRED my full attention and all of my paws all of the time. Now that you mention it, last ride I took in a helicopter (Jet Ranger, IIRC) the pilot was able to let go of the collective from time to time. Still... texting? :-(
gonna be a lot of zeros in that lawsuit
1) Texting can by asynchronous, whereas a call tends to be synchronous.
2) "I'M CALLING FROM MY HELICOPTER. HEL-I-COPT-ER. WHAT? WHAT? SPEAK UP!"
Bull!
Airplane mode wouldn’t work - he was flying a helicopter. :=)
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