KANSAS CITY — Federal investigators tell Associated Press that a helicopter ambulance crash that killed four people northeast of Kansas City nearly two years ago may have caused by texting. The August 26, 2011, crash near Mosby, Missouri, may be the first fatal commercial aircraft accident in which texting figured as a cause. A National Transportation Safety Board report says pilot James Freudenbert exchanged 20 text messages with an acquaintance in less than two hours before the helicopter crashed, including some texts while he was flying. At one point, the pilot was texting while he was radioing that his helicopter was low on fuel. The report says evidence suggests that the pilot may have been distracted by the texts and failed to refuel the helicopter before taking off, overestimated how much fuel the helicopter had and missed a low-fuel warning light. The aircraft crashed about a mile away from an airfield where he planned to refuel. He was killed, as were two medical crew members and a patient.
Updated 4/9/13 @ 11:05 pm
