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Published: Aug. 23, 2012 at 11:27 AM
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- The death of a Canadian woman who fell in British Columbia in a tandem hang gliding jump in April was preventable, a professional organization says.
Late Wednesday, the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada issued a report saying Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, wasn't strapped to the glider piloted by instructor William Orders.
She fell 1,000 feet to her death April 28 on Mount Woodside 75 miles east of Vancouver, the QMI Agency said.
The regulatory association's investigator Martin Henry said a "hang-check" to test connecting straps wasn't performed.
"It was preventable if procedures had been followed," Henry said. "The key point of the accident report, the inspection of the equipment and the view of evidence has eliminated any possibility of equipment failure."
His report notes there was a second accredited pilot assisting Orders and questioned how both missed a basic safety check, The (Vancouver) Province reported.
"The unusual aspect of a second pilot instructor being present for the event makes it difficult to understand how the multiple phases of the pre-flight [were] missed by both pilots, and how the hang-check was not performed," the report states.
Orders was charged with obstruction of justice by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the memory card of an onboard camera disappeared. Orders passed it into a holding cell toilet but no images were retrievable, police said.
Orders is to appear in court nexy April and is banned from flying.
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