To answer your question, Pozi, the evidence suggests that he was paying plenty of attention to his flying based on the last recorded text being about 4 minutes before this accident. The discussion about this among professional pilots has to do with weather, disorientation, visibility and mission requirements that set up various decision making options.
Piots multi-task as part of their profession. Pilots use multiple radios and navaids as part of their profession. Unlike folk who drive cars, and who have never been formally trained to do as pilots do, pilots are taught and tend to follow a cardinal rule:
Aviate
Navigate
Communicate
I will argue that using a text as a second comms channel in this case was abandoned as the imperative noted became more pressing to the top of the list, Aviate, over the bottom of the list, and his last series of comms were on the radio with a controlling agency. My analysis? Text had BFA to do with this.
You will find, in this thread and in the thread covering this accident in the Rotorheads forum, AMPLE discussion of the use of text as an adjunct to radio comms, and in particular the argument about that in re this accident.
Please READ THE ENTIRE THREAD before you sound off.
