The case "juxtaposes old issues of pilot decision making with a 21st-century twist" — distraction by portable electric devices, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman. The board was meeting to determine the cause of the August 2011 accident near Mosby, Mo., and to make safety recommendations.
The case is the first fatal commercial aircraft accident investigated by the board in which texting has been implicated. It underscores the board's worries that cellphones and other distracting electronic devices are a growing factor in accidents and incidents across all modes of transportation — planes, trains, cars, trucks and even ships.
The pilot, James Freudenbert, 34, of Rapid City, S.D., exchanged 20 text messages, mostly with a coworker, over a span of less than two hours before the helicopter crashed into a farm field a little over a mile from an airport where he hoped to refuel, documents made public by NTSB show.
