Posted on 05/12/2012 12:21:17 PM PDT by billorites
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.
Godinez-Avila's body was later found in a heavily wooded area, police said.
"There have been a series of x-rays taken," Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) told reporters. "We have confirmed, so we're just kind of in the waiting process here."
She said the x-rays show that the card is "still inside."
"We've equated it about the size to our Canadian loonie dollar coin," Constable Tracy Wolbeck of the RCMP told ABCNews.com today. "It's not a big thing. It's a small little memory card that fits into [the] camera."
A Canadian loonie is slightly larger than an American quarter.
Wolbeck said that Orders "advised police that he had swallowed the card," but said that police cannot say anything else about conversations they have had with him because the investigation is ongoing.
"The circumstances surrounding the situation are very unique," she said. "We are working diligently so that we can find answers for the family."
Margit Nance, the executive director of the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, said that Orders was a fully certified instructor and tandem pilot who had been flying for 16 years. She said that all of his training was "completely up-to-date."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
As opposed to merely 'unique'?
Well, if he’s guilty of something, wonder why he squealed that he had swallowed the card? Police probably would have suspected he threw it away from altitude in the glider and they’d have a hard time finding it. I guess he must have felt her up or something. Whatever.
Have those police run out of things to do? Are there no jay-walkers they could “investigate”?
We would of course need a picture of the victim to help determine guilt (or innocence)
Losing your passenger at altitude is not a sign of a good pilot.../S
Maybe the spokesperson didn’t want to go all the way and say “very suspicious”.
Yep, most likely.
Let’s not rush to judgement..possibly, she “unhooked” herself?
I was thinking to do this over a lake after launching from a water ski. How safe is hang gliding for a newbie?
Your odds are good...
Good question. Things are unique and uniquer? Maybe tres unique?
A persons life is a little more important than jaywalkers.
Well, one could say that she was a fallen woman.
Then why swallow evidence to that effect?
Pretty much impossible to do without the cooperation of the tandem pilot. You would have to climb into the control bar thereby releasing the tension on the hang strap, then unhook and drop.
She fell out of her harness. Likely the tandem pilot did not check to make sure the leg loops were around her legs. Even solo pilots have made this mistake. They have also failed to even hook into the glider before launch. Hang gliding is not very forgiving of such inattention.
She was a passenger on a tandem flight, she had no control over the glider. The tandem pilot blew it with the pre flight of her harness. Very sad story.
The in flight camera is usually attached somewhere on the wing leading edge, not accesible in flight. However, he certainly could have landed, pulled the card and buried it or smashed it. Pretty lousy of him to swallow it, I guess guilt got to him and he squealed.....or maybe a little pressure from the police investigators?
He blew it and needs to take full responsiblity. This would be an awful thing to live with in so many ways.
True.He could have made up some other excuse...anything from “I never turned the camera on in the first place” to “I pulled it out of the camera to preserve it and it fell”.
The victim is dead. Show some sensitivity and quit acting like an ignorant juvenile.
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