Apparently there people who text while flying— but it's worth noting the details in this story as well.

Federal safety officials on Tuesday blamed [helicopter pilot james] Freudenberg's crash [August 2011] in Mosby, Missouri, on fatigue, training, and, distracted texting.

To the amazement of safety officials, Freudenberg evidently sent several text messages with one hand while flying the helicopter with the other.

But those text messages in the air — which ended 19 minutes before the crash — turned out to be less consequential than text messages he sent and received while on the ground.

Investigators believe Freudenberg engaged in an extensive text conversation with a colleague about dinner plans while he was conducting mandatory pre-flight checks of his helicopter.

Because of those distractions, Freudenberg missed two opportunities to detect that his helicopter did not have sufficient fuel for his mission, investigators said.

When Freudenberg finally noticed his fuel was low, he was half-way through the first leg of his flight.

He arrived at the hospital, picked up the patient, and looked for an alternate, closer destination to refuel. But his 13-minute stop was again disrupted by a private text conversation, and he took off after miscalculating that he could reach his destination.

The LifeNet helicopter ran out of fuel a mile short of the destination — within sight of the Midwest National Air Center.

The copter crashed into a pasture in mere seconds, killing Freudenberg, the patient he was transporting, and two medical personnel.