A National Transportation Safety Board review of a May 2014 single-engine plane crash in Colorado says it’s likely that “cell phone use during the accident flight” distracted the plane’s pilot and contributed his loss of control. The pilot, 29-year-old Amritpal Singh, was killed in the crash along with a passenger. The NTSB’s determination is based on recordings on a GoPro site found in the wreckage:
The GoPro recordings revealed that the pilot and various passengers were taking self-photographs with their cell phones and, during the night flight, using the camera’s flash function during the takeoff roll, initial climb, and flight in the traffic pattern.
The crash itself was not captured on the GoPro, but a recording of a flight immediately preceding the accident depicted cellphone use, the NTSB writes.
