Fatal Denver plane crash was likely caused by pilot taking selfie, say investigators

Pilot had filmed himself during take-off before

(Adams County Sheriff's Office)

Along with all of our social ones, the selfie has it seems now claimed two actual lives, after the National Transportation Safety Board discovered that self-taken photographs likely caused a pilot to lose control of a plane over Denver, Colorado.

The NTSB said there was footage on a GoPro found near the wreckage that showed the pilot taking selfies on previous flights, though no video was recovered of the fatal one.

"The GoPro recordings revealed that the pilot and various passengers were taking self-photographs with their cell phones and, during the night flight, using the camera’s flash function during the takeoff roll, initial climb, and flight in the traffic pattern," the board said in the report released Friday.

It is highly likely gadgetry distractions were behind the crash as there was no evidence of technical problems with the plane.

"Post-accident examination of the airplane did not reveal any pre-impact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation," the report continued. "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."

Pilot Amritpal Sing died in the crash along with a tourist passenger, with it being thought that the aircraft suffered an aerodynamic stall and "subsequent spin into terrain".

"It is likely that cell phone use during the accident flight distracted the pilot and contributed to the development of spatial disorientation and subsequent loss of control," the report concluded.