People who are not fond of taking selfies might probably think that its an epidemic that has spread globally. These days its not hard to come across someone taking a shot of themselves with someone or something interesting using the front camera on their smartphone. No matter which side of the selfie debate you’re on one must agree that there’s a time for taking selfies, and there’s a time to fly the plane. If a Cessna 150 pilot hadn’t done the former last year the plane probably wouldn’t have crashed.
The single engine Cessna 150 crashed in Colorado last year killing both the pilot, 29-year old Amritpal Singh, and his passenger. Apparently the pilot had been disoriented due to cellphone use and “self-photographs.”
That’s what the National Transportation Safety Board review says in its report. It says that cell phone use is likely to have “distracted the pilot and contributed to the development of spatial disorientation and subsequent loss of control.”
There was a GoPro camera onboard the plane and when investigators were combing through the footage of previous flights they saw that the pilot and many of his passengers used the camera’s flash function during takeoff roll, climb and flight. No footage of the actual accident was ever found.
We have all heard about the dangers of distracted driving. This goes to show there are unspeakable dangers of distracted flying. [Image credit]