GUILTY Canada - Lenami Godinez Avila, 28, fell from hang glider, Chilliwack, BC, 28 Apr 2012

Blondie in Spokane · May 3, 2012

Can you believe this??.....

"A Canadian hang gliding pilot whose passenger plummeted 1,000 feet to her death is in police custody until a video camera memory card he swallowed passes through his digestive system."

"William Jon Orders, 50, has been charged with obstructing justice after allegedly swallowing the card from the video camera that was attached to the hang glider."

"Authorities believe the card may hold evidence that could show what happened when Orders' passenger, Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, fell shortly after the two were launched from Mount Woodside in British Columbia on a tandem hang-gliding flight on Saturday."

http://abcnews.go.com/International...allows-memory-card-evidence/story?id=16272502

Velouria · May 3, 2012

LOL Blondie. From your header, I thought you meant the hang glider managed to swallow the memory card after being fatally injured. That would be a neat trick.

doubt · May 4, 2012

wow. that's horrible and the dude is some kind of depraved!

mikeysmommom · May 4, 2012

I wonder what he is hiding!

Herding Cats · May 4, 2012

What goes in, will come out. Hopefully, intact. So that the lab can clean and view what was on the card. I am quite glad I don't work at that lab.

Best-
Herding Cat

TexasLori · May 4, 2012

That is one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard.

lizzybeth · May 4, 2012

I hope whatever was on that memory card survived. Digestive juices can be pretty rough (sorry). Don't worry about the lab workers. My sister works in a lab and believe me they deal with THAT all the time.

I wonder if on the card you can hear him confess to being negligent in his preparation for the hang gliding?

TrackerSam · May 4, 2012

lizzybeth said:
I hope whatever was on that memory card survived. Digestive juices can be pretty rough (sorry). Don't worry about the lab workers. My sister works in a lab and believe me they deal with THAT all the time.

I wonder if on the card you can hear him confess to being negligent in his preparation for the hang gliding?

I say cut him open.

"The association has temporarily suspended Orders' certification as an instructor and tandem pilot pending the completion of the investigation, Nance said.

"Then there will be a review as to whether further disciplinary action has to be taken, which could include being stripped of all the ratings and expulsion from the association."

They're really tough in Canada eh?

buffetoflies · May 4, 2012

lizzybeth said:
I wonder if on the card you can hear him confess to being negligent in his preparation for the hang gliding?

If I was Lenami Godinez-Avila, and he'd done the negligent speaking in front of me, I would NOT started the gliding trip, or would have asked him to abort in after the admission!

Nova · May 4, 2012

buffetoflies said:
If I was Lenami Godinez-Avila, and he'd done the negligent speaking in front of me, I would NOT started the gliding trip, or would have asked him to abort in after the admission!

The pilot may have said something that proves negligence, but which the passenger didn't understand at the time.

luckyducky · May 4, 2012

Hang-glider pilot's memory card recovered.

Police have retrieved the memory card from a B.C. hang-gliding pilot who allegedly swallowed the evidence after a woman plunged to her death from his tandem glider. http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/hang-glider-pilots-memory-card-recovered

BuzzieCat · May 4, 2012

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/03/hang-glider-pilot-accused-of-swallowing-evidence-in-fatal-fall/

"A witness, Nicole McLearn, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that when the glider was in the air, Godinez-Avila appeared to be wearing her harness, but it wasnt attached to the glider. The passenger clung to Orders before she fell, McLearn said.

'"He was horizontal but she was now hanging vertically, and it looked like in essence she had him in a bear hug around the chest area," McLearn told the CBC."

Article says she slid down his body and fell. He had been unsuccessfully trying to grab her harness and hold onto her with his legs.

redheadedgal · May 4, 2012

ever since saturday it was speculated by people writing in various news comment sections that the pilot missed doing a "hang check" to ensure all the equipment was in place and fully connected before taking off... seems this was the case... and would be absent from the flight recording which was why the pilot tried to get rid of the evidence:

Paraglider Alex Ramont, who helped search for Godinez-Avila's body, says she watched Orders set up the trip and that he missed a crucial safety check.

"I was there pretty much for the entire time that they showed up until the time they launched and I did not see a hang check performed," she said.

A hang check is executed by having a pilot and passenger hang from a stationary glider to make sure they're properly attached.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/...lider_120502/20120502?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

apparently these flights were mass purchased (200+) via groupons and more speculation says the pilot was hurrying to get through flights to be able to accommodate the buyers...

(see vancouver hang gliding on facebook for a post where groupons are mentioned)

lastly, i find it unbelievable that now on their website they assert that:

Tandem passengers should also double check the preparations and quizz the pilot for their own safety.

http://www.vancouverhanggliding.ca/

so-- a novice glider (as i understand the victim to have been) needs to be as educated as her instructor? and quizz (sic) his preparedness?

are riders not paying for their pilot's expertise??? wth??!

redheadedgal · May 5, 2012

the VHG.ca website i linked earlier mentions a particular newspaper's "take" on the tragedy... amazingly it states that third parties should be responsible for those hang checks which would then take the onus off the pilot... seems VHG -even with the obstruction charge staring them in the face- doesn't want to take any responsibility for what happened

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/05/01/brian-hutchinson-hang-gliding-for-fun-and-fatalities/

montana_16 · May 5, 2012

How awful. Falling like that must be one of the most terrifying ways to die.

BuzzieCat · May 5, 2012

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/04/world/americas/canada-hang-glider-death/

Police have the memory card and he's been granted bail. He is to turn in his passport and not give any hang glider rides.

redheadedgal · May 7, 2012

witnesses recall hang glider's deadly plunge

http://www.windsorstar.com/health/national/6575257/story.html

houndstooth · May 7, 2012

redheadedgal said:
witnesses recall hang glider's deadly plunge

http://www.windsorstar.com/health/national/6575257/story.html

An informal memorial service in a clearing in the woods.
That's nice.
Anybody read where funeral services for her were arranged?
An obituary printed in amongst lurid stories of video card Xray tracking?

Yeah. Me neither.

houndstooth · May 7, 2012

Is this her?

http://dir.gov.bc.ca/gtds.cgi?searc...ding&search=Search&gobutton.x=13&gobutton.y=8

I read several stories none of which gave the least details of the 'victim'.
Not where she was from. Not anything at all about who she was.

If she's this person, then it begs a few other questions as well, as the one above about how come I could find no obituary or funeral arrangements, just some vague memorial in the woods where she died according to the news stories which seem oddly sketchy.

houndstooth · May 7, 2012

A search in the pipl.com international directory returned NO RESULTS for a William Orders or William Jon Orders from Burnaby, BC, Canada where he was reputed to be from.

GUILTY Canada - Lenami Godinez Avila, 28, fell from hang glider, Chilliwack, BC, 28 Apr 2012

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