I'm not really trying to jump on the anti-cell phone bandwagon here, but I heard this on the news on the way home yesterday and thought it might be of interest to the TD readership.
I suppose it could be argued that this could similarly have happened if the pilot was talking on the radio to a ground station or other aircraft, but those transmissions tend to be short, terse, and flight related.
Like many of you, I have been nearly clobbered more than once on the road and in parking lots by someone who was too busy chatting to pay attention to where their vehicle was going.
By the way, there has also been some recent news articles about potential interference between Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs) and aircraft communication and navigation and other avionic systems. A similarly emotional topic, and best suited for a different thread.
Best wishes to PAT for a speedy recovery, and welcome back!
Regards,
Mike Springfield VA
This is a printer friendly version of an article from
Article published Mar 1, 2006 Pilot on Cell Phone When Killed, FAA Says By Brad Zinn/staff snipped-for-privacy@newsleader.com
MOUNT SIDNEY - A Spottswood pilot killed last week after crashing his airplane along Interstate 81 in Mount Sidney was talking on a cell phone when the accident occurred, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The agency's preliminary report prepared for the National Transportation Safety Board stated that Benjamin R. Hickin, 30, of Spottswood, was flying above I-81 while speaking to a friend below who was driving a tractor-trailer northbound on the interstate when the plane clipped cables running between two transmission towers.
1st. Sgt. Jeff Pearson, of the Virginia State Police, said the aircraft severed two small lines connecting the towers. "They're about the size of your thumb," he said.Pearson estimated Hickin's Cessna was traveling between 120 and 140 miles an hour when he struck the lines. The impact sheared off the right wing of the aircraft, he said, sending the plane tumbling onto the interstate. The plane struck a car hauling vehicles sold on Ebay before it came to rest in a ditch just off the highway and exploded in flames.
Pearson said, "We're not aware of any mechanical or medical deficiencies."
Hickin and the unidentified man he was talking to on the cell phone both were part owners of the plane, according to the report.
"There was an apparent attempt for the person on the ground to visually see the aircraft," Pearson said.
Witnesses described the plane as circling the area before the crash. Hickin died on impact from multiple injuries, according to autopsy results released by the Medical Examiner's Office in Roanoke.
The FAA has taken fuel samples from the aircraft and will disassemble the engine as part of its investigation, Pearson said. A manufacturer's assessment also is pending, he said. "The man from Cessna was there the next day."
Hickin was an experienced commercial pilot who recently left Manassas-based Colgan Air for a position with Gemini Air Cargo, where he was flying internationally.