Was a helicopter crash that killed four people as it took a patient to hospital caused by the pilot TEXTING at the controls?

A fatal 2011 medical helicopter crash is thought to be the first commercial accident caused by texting while flying, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

The incident in Missouri killed four people, including the 58-year-old woman who was being transferred between hospitals, after the helicopter ran out of fuel and plunged to the ground.


Now new documents reveal that the pilot received four texts and sent three others during the flight and it thought that these distractions contributed to the accident.



Scene: The medical helicopter crashed in this field after what is thought to be the first commercial accident caused by texting and flying, according to safety board reports








Tragic: Pilot James Freudenbert, 34, (left) and 58-year-old Terry Tacoronte, (right) who was being transferred between hospitals, died in the crash


As reported by Bloomberg, the National Transportation Safety Board is meeting on Tuesday to assign a cause for the accident on August 26, 2011.

Four people died in the crash of the Eurocopter AS-350, owned by Colorado-based Air Methods Corp. and flown by its subsidiary, LifeNet Air Medical Services.

The husband of Terry Tacoronte, the 58-year-old patient who was killed, filed a lawsuit against the helicopter operator, saying the company took an unnecessary risk by flying with low fuel.




Pilot James Freudenbert, 34, of Rapid City, S.D., 47-year-old flight nurse Randy Bever from Savannah, Mo., and Chris Frakes, 36, a flight paramedic from Savannah, also died in the crash.

The Air Methods Corp. medical helicopter crashed in a field near Mosby, Missouri after running out of fuel, according to initial reports.


Use of electronic devices by pilots during flight is banned by the company.

'This is a classic example of dividing attention in a way that compromises safety,' David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, told Bloomberg.






Accident: Chris Frakes, 36, a flight paramedic from Savannah, Mo, (left) and 47-year-old flight nurse Randy Bever, also from Savannah, (right) also lost their lives



Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the safety board, wrote that this is the first time the NTSB has found evidence of texting or cell-phone use by pilots involved in a fatal accident.

Freudenbert reportedly got four texts, three of them from a colleague he was planning to have dinner with, and sent three others during the flight, according to the NTSB records.

The same evidence states that another 13 texts were recorded on his phone in the 71 minutes before he took off, including two texts sent during another flight.

The pilot also told the colleague that he hadn’t slept well the night before, according to the records.

John Lee, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin, told Bloomberg that this sort of crash is different to a distracted car driver that takes their eyes off the road and causes an accident.


Professor Lee gave an alternative parallel to Bloomberg for this case. He claims it is similar to an office worker who gets a phone call and then forgets to do something else, like sending an email.



Four people died in the crash of the Eurocopter AS-350, (the same model pictured here) owned by Colorado-based Air Methods Corp. and flown by its subsidiary, LifeNet Air Medical Services

According to Lee, multi-tasking has often been linked to medical errors.

Pilot Freudenbert had reported being lower on fuel than he realized before the aircraft went down in the field northeast of Kansas City, according to a preliminary report.


The report said the pilot reported having two hours of fuel when he left from St. Joseph to retrieve a patient in the Harrison County town of Bethany, near the Iowa border.


But while the chopper was shut down on the pad at the Bethany hospital, the pilot reported he had less fuel than he originally thought.


About a minute after takeoff, the pilot told his company's communication center he had 45 minutes of fuel and was headed to Midwest National Air Center to refuel.


The pilot asked the communication center to contact the center to let them know the chopper was coming.




Factor? New documents reveal that the pilot received four texts and sent three others during the flight and it thought that these distractions contributed to the accident

From there, the crew planned to head to Liberty Hospital in suburban Kansas City to drop off the patient. But the chopper crashed about 30 minutes after takeoff.


Medical helicopters rarely run on a full fuel tank because of weight issues associated with the aircraft and on-board equipment.


Kansas City attorney Gary C. Robb has said previously that the pilot wasn't to blame because he was following corporate policy.