A former hang-glider pilot whose passenger fell 300 metres to her death during a flight over B.C.'s Fraser Valley has pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death. William Jon Orders, shown leaving the court house in Chilliwack, B.C., Monday, June 18, 2012 was charged in the death of 27-year-old Lenami Godinez-Avila, and he was also charged with obstruction of justice for swallowing a memory card that contained video of what happened. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
February 07, 2014 - 10:09 AM
CHILLIWACK, B.C. - A former hang-glider pilot whose passenger fell 300 metres to her death during a flight over B.C.'s Fraser Valley has pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death.
William Jon Orders was charged in the death of 27-year-old Lenami Godinez-Avila, and he was also charged with obstruction of justice for swallowing a memory card that contained video of what happened.
Order pleaded guilty during a hearing in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack, though it wasn't immediately clear what would happen to the obstruction charge.
Godinez-Avila was a passenger on a tandem hang-glider flight on April 28, 2012, but fell from the gilder shortly after takeoff and dropped to the ground.
The Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada investigated the incident and concluded Godinez-Avila's harness was not attached to the glider during take off and that Orders didn't perform a pre-launch safety check.
After Godinez-Avila's death, he apologized to the woman's family and friends for his "panicked" actions, admitting to swallowing the memory card, and said he would not return to hang gliding.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014