Pilot texting before fatal crash - report

Morgan Saxton was killed when his helicopter crashed in Lake Wanaka in November 2008. Photo / Supplied

A helicopter pilot was sending and receiving text messages in the minutes prior to being killed in a crash, a report says.

Morgan Saxton - who was on bail after he and his father David were earlier jailed for theft of greenstone - died when his Robinson Helicopter Company R22 helicopter crashed into Lake Wanaka on November 1, 2008.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission said there was no witnesses to the helicopter crash, but about six minutes prior to the estimated time of the crash, Mr Saxton flew past a barge being skippered by a friend.

"Telephone company records showed that in the next few minutes the pilot had received and sent cellphone text messages, including one sent close to the estimated time of the accident to the barge skipper," the commission said.

The wreckage showed that the helicopter was affected by a effect known as a "mast bump" prior to it hitting the water.

Anecdotes suggested the pilot "had a preference for flying fast", which would have exacerbated the reaction of the helicopter to the conditions it was in.

"If the pilot had been preoccupied with his cellphone, he would have had less time to take the appropriate recovery action."

Most of the fuselage of helicopter, along with the dead pilot, was retrieved from the lake bed four days after the accident, but some key components were not recovered.

The commission had previously reported on accidents where cellphone use by a pilot or vessel skipper might have been a contributing factor, and had made safety recommendations to the relevant regulatory authorities.

No new safety recommendations have been made.