Flight Instructors... Students are your FIRST Priority!

When I was teaching, I would do occasional things to intentionally distract the student to see how well they were maintaining situational awareness. That might include messing with the radio, playing with functions on the GPS or any number of things. And, I might even pull out the cell phone and look at something on there, perhaps make a comment under my breath. But my head was not buried in those actions. If my head did not look up, my eyes were certainly directed left to see where his hands were, what he or she was looking at and actions taken.

On the long, dual cross country the first leg was pretty much more training. The second leg was more on their own with at some point me suddenly announcing there's a storm ahead or make some other excuse to divert. From the diversion point to the original, second landing, they were left alone. But the third leg I went from being flight instructor to the "pain in the ass passenger", constantly talking, asking questions, messing with things on the panel, about anything to distract them from their first job, to fly the airplane. Only once did a student get wise and hit the intercom isolate switch. I was proud of him!

It's sad the instructor in this story lost their life. It's just as sad they were so diverted in their attention to not pay attention to their student. Looking at something as an intentional distraction as I've done is one thing. Interacting with a third party other than ATC but rather using Facetime... damn stupid! You cannot watch your student if you're actually interacting with another person who intentionally distracts you. Had he survived, this instructor's ticket should have been pulled.

While there's yet to be any proof shown this instructor was actually on their device using Facetime, it would not surprise me.