Amritpal Singh crashed his Cessna in May, 2014.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The cause of a plane crash last May that killed both individuals on board has been attributed to the pilot taking selfies instead of mechanical failure as previously postulated, according to federal investigators.
Pilot Amritpal Singh, age 29, crashed his Cessna 150K into a Colorado wheat field shortly after midnight on May 31, 2014. The plane’s downed wreckage was subsequently discovered later that morning.
NTSB investigators told USA Today that the evidence suggests Singh got distracted, then disoriented, stalled the plane, and dove into a high-speed crash. According to records, Singh also lacked the proper certification for flying with passengers at night, let alone flying at night.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported a GoPro video recording device mounted to the plane’s windshield recorded Singh and several passengers taking photos of themselves on their smartphones during a series of flights leading up to the crash.
While the GoPro didn’t record the flight of the crash itself, investigators saw enough to establish a pattern of selfie-taking and possibly texting while giving rides to passengers from Front Range Airport, just east of Denver.
“A post-accident examination of the airplane did not reveal any pre-impact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Based on the wreckage distribution, which was consistent with a high-speed impact, and the degraded visual reference conditions, it is likely that the pilot experienced spatial disorientation and lost control of the airplane,” read the NTSB’s official report.
Federal regulations bar commercial pilots and aircraft crew from using their cell phones while on duty, during takeoff, while landing, or when cruising below 10,000 feet, but no such rules apply to private pilots on private planes.
In fact, nowadays many private pilots utilize their phones or tablets instead of traditional navigational systems, especially since small craft like the Cessna Singh was piloting don’t come stocked with the intricate navigation and readout systems found in commercial cockpits.