A charge of criminal negligence causing death has been laid against a hang-glider pilot in connection with an incident in which a 27-year-old woman plunged 300 metres to the ground last year.
William (Jon) Orders, 50, was flying with Lenami Godinez-Avila when she fell seconds after the launch of a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley on April 28, 2012.
Orders, a Burnaby resident, was earlier charged with obstructing justice after police alleged he swallowed the data disk from a video camera aboard his glider.
Orders is scheduled to appear in Chilliwack Provincial Court on Monday.
A report released in August by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada into the incident said Godinez-Avila's harness was not connected to the glider on takeoff and that the required "hang-check" - a test to ensure that harnesses are hooked in - had not been carried out.
The report ruled out equipment failure as a contributing factor. The incident occurred as Godinez-Avila and her boyfriend were celebrating an anniversary. Mount Woodside is a popular launch site with hang gliding and paragliding buffs because it stares into natural prevailing winds - necessary to give lift - and because it offers breathtaking views of Harrison Bay, the Fraser River and Chilliwack below. Godinez-Avila fell into a clearcut area where a cherry tree has since been planted in her memory.
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