B.C. hang glider plunges to her death as boyfriend watches: Pilot eats video memory card, arrested f

I wanted to post this earlier when I first saw the latter part of my title on the news this evening.
Last weekend a horrible tragedy happened. So horrible words will never do it justice. A boyfriend bought his girlfriend a tandem hang-glider pass for their anniversary. Soon after take off she slipped from the harness and fell 300 meters to her death. While her boyfriend watched.

VANCOUVER—Mounties in B.C.’s Fraser Valley have seized a hang glider for inspection after a 27-year-old woman fell to her death over the weekend.

“(The pilot) was still horizontal but she was now hanging vertically and it looked like she was in essence, had him in a bear hug around the chest area,” the witness said. “I could see her starting to slip down his body…down the legs, past the waist, down the legs. Finally she got to the feet and tried to hang on and obviously couldn’t hang on for that much longer and let go, tearing off the tandem pilot’s shoes in the process.”

Story

So sad. But to add insult to injury, get this. The news reported tonight that the pilot was arrested for obstruction of justice because of EATING the damn memory card. Can you believe that?

According to media reports, court documents filed in Chilliwack, B.C. allege the 50-year-old from Burnaby gulped down the digital memory card that may contain evidence around how Lenami Godinez-Avila died. The reports cite the sworn documents submitted by the RCMP and say the media card may have come from an onboard camera that contains video of the fatal flight. Read it on Global News: Global BC | Hang glider pilot accused of swallowing memory card showing fatal flight:reports

What a piece of Sh##. A real piece of work that guy. There is an investigation into the safety of the harness, proper procedures taken etc, and judging by the way she fell...he forgot to strap her in. So instead of owning up, he planned to sh@t it out. Jerk.

National Post

OOPS...posted wrong info...my bad...mea culpa....

reply to post by Destinyone


No, her boyfriend wasn't the pilot. He was on the ground.

In fact, he was an environmental engineer and she was working the government as well. They were a cozy couple with their futures beginning

Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by FlySolo

 

Wonder if he took out a nice little life insurance policy on her before the anniversary flight....

If he did nothing wrong...why hide the evidence that would prove it was just a horrible accident...better yet, why even think of eating the memory card. That is just too bizarre in it's self...

Des

Wait.. it was the boyfriend who ate the memory card? No.. I think it was the hang-glider guide guy.. the 'pilot' as they referred to him.. right?


ETA: beat me to it

Originally posted by FlySolo
reply to post by Destinyone

 

No, her boyfriend wasn't the pilot. He was on the ground.

In fact, he was an environmental engineer and she was working the government as well. They were a cozy couple with their futures beginning

edit on 1-5-2012 by FlySolo because: (no reason given)

My mistake. TY for correcting me. Hope they did blood work on the pilot to see if he was on anything.

reply to post by Destinyone


and a stool sample no doubt

I was given feet and no wings.
This tells me something.
I walk much further than I can fly.

Falling like that is a terrible way to die. Those final seconds feel like a lifetime.

I used to skydive but stopped halfway through my training because honestly I got scared. Why? Because a week after my last jump a young woman died when her shute failed to open. After having to deal with tangled and twisted lines and a few close calls I just figured f*€? it.

Flying, or falling, is a unique rush because it takes very few things to go wrong with very little time to save yourself. Your subconcious knows it, but you dont.

If your wings collapse, you're stuffed! If any harness of sorts is faulty, you're stuffed! If your engine dies after takeoff, unless you can find a landing spot in 2 seconds, you're stuffed!

Just three days ago I was at Margate Airport in South Africa at a home-built/kit-plane fly-in where a small aircraft crashlanded and burst into flames. It happened just after take-off, low speed, not enough height to establish a glide. The female passenger died on impact and the pilot is fighting for his life with third degree burns all over his body. And worst part is I only found out yesterday that they were the parents of a kareoke friend of mine... The odds...

What few people realise is that, these days, people drop like flies throughout the day, for a number of reasons, but mostly because of their own stupidity.
Taking chances (bikers), making bad decisions, trusting in others, or just being plain stupid. If you place yourself in constant danger, someday life is gonna bitch-slap you with the big old hand of death.

I myself have an imaginary danger bar in my head which makes me aware of the level of danger I am in at any given point. I never let people make life altering decisions for me and I always check my harnesses and rigs myself! The result being that I have saved my life on numerous occasions.

When we're all travelling at the speed of Life we're bound to crash into one another.

Aloof is the word. You cant stay alive without it.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by Monkeygod333


Kudos on your post. I'm a private pilot. When people have asked why I haven't been sky diving, I always say..."why jump out of a perfectly good airplane".

Just the thought of falling to my death from that height, gives me shivers.

Des

So the "pilot" is the hang-glider pro/operator, who was carrying the female as a passenger in a tandem rig, correct? And the boyfriend was on the ground watching as the events unfolded? That article needed a little editing for clarity...

Now what was this memory card the pilot ate? Was it from an on-board video camera? So basically he was trying to suppress evidence of possible negligence on his part in securing the tandem rig? If so, I hope they recover that evidence and fry his ass.

With any extreme sport, there are risks involved.

Now, the risks can of course be greatly reduced by proper equipment, safety checks and professional operators. The pilot of the hang glider obviously has something to hide.

Why the ***** eat the memory card?!? Except if he knew he screwed up somewhere.

This is a horrible story, and really makes my heart hurt. The old saying of "people dieing doing what they loved" is bs to me. There are risks involved with all extremes sport, yet, you don't go into it recklessly, and the people who operate these things, better know their story. They have the lives of others in their hands.

I feel sorry for her husband.

vvv

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


That's exactly right. Sorry for any confusion. But that's expected, this story is just plain weird. He ate the on-board cam memory card to suppress evidence. But I was thinking, maybe he did something during flight. What else of significance would the glider cam have prior to preflight? It wouldn't be turned on then, would it?

Originally posted by FlySolo
reply to post by Blackmarketeer

 

That's exactly right. Sorry for any confusion. But that's expected, this story is just plain weird. He ate the on-board cam memory card to suppress evidence. But I was thinking, maybe he did something during flight. What else of significance would the glider cam have prior to preflight? It wouldn't be turned on then, would it?

reply to post by FlySolo


It could have recorded how she slipped out, which would probably indicate that she wasn't strapped in properly. Seems like the pilot is covering his tracks. Or he may have just panicked and done it because he wasn't in the right state of mind after it happened.

reply to post by InSanE1


Well the reason why I say this is because according to the story she was slipping gradually all the way down to his feet. I can't see how he would have been able to maintain flight with her hanging on to his legs. Did he kick her off to save his butt?

Having flown nearly 200 hours in Hanggliders and 4,000+ hours in other soaring aircraft and having once been a master rated instructor in Paragliding I can tell you what happened with ZERO doubt. Only three possibilities, both the pilots fault.
1. Never put the "Leg loops" of the harness on her.
2. The passenger removed them prior to the flight to use the ladies room in which case see answer above.

Eating the photo evidence is simply proof he knew what he did wrong the second he did it.

I left that industry and went to an FAA regulated toy in part due to the absolute lack of professionalism in the sport. There are some remarkable exceptions to my statement but they are rare individuals. Never trust a sport where the "governing" body (USHGPA) is made up of people that own schools or distributorships for equipment...

My heart goes out to her family, boyfriend and friends