Firefighters approach a plane crashed into the side of the Northwest Technology Center in Alva as part of the Woods County emergency disaster exercise.
Photo by Julie Whiteman
All hands were on deck Friday morning as Woods County emergency crews worked through a mock emergency at the Northwest Technology Center in Alva. The Emergency Disaster exercise included a wrecked plane and plenty of casualties.
Parents of the students at the tech center added to the mix as they frantically went looking for their children.
The purpose of the drill was to test not only the abilities of emergency crews, but also their ability to work together.
Fire departments, EMS, Air Evac, sheriff's office, police departments and ER staff at Share Medical Center all took part in the exercise.
Johnny Vaughn, regional response System Coordinator with the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security, observed the emergency teams for evaluation.
“The purpose of a drill like this is to test the ability of all agencies and to determine the strength of their ability to work together. A multi-jurisdiction exercise can be instrumental in preparing them to work as one team. All those entities have to work together and make their communications with each other to plan for the day that they may actually need to manage a disaster,” Vaughn said.
“They all did very well. I was very impressed as was everyone who was there for the evaluation process. The scenario they chose was extreme and certainly tested the abilities of all departments.”
A prop plane was ground zero for a drill on response to a terrorist attack just outside Atco Raceway in Waterford Township Sunday, April 29, 2012. Emergency responders from three counties participated in the drill.
Photo by Joe Green/Gloucester County Times
WATERFORD TWP. — Spectators spring from their seats and cheer as the engines roar, side-by-side toward the finish line.
It’s
another sun-drenched weekend at Atco Raceway, and the race comes down
to a bumper’s edge. But suddenly, a deafening roar overwhelms all other
noise.
A passenger plane snaps trees then slams to the turf, seeming to shake the earth.
Soon,
police, firefighters, EMS and later federal agents will descend on this
edge of Wharton State Forest, picking through the rubble and the pines
for battered survivors, and for clues.
Such was the scenario for a
practice drill held here Sunday, involving 24 emergency agencies from
Camden, Burlington and Atlantic counties.
The drill - funded by at
least part of a $102,000 Homeland Security grant - was a run-through
for the emergency workers who would respond to a terrorist attack on a
plane whose carnage ends up here.
Organizers stressed the importance of a
well-coordinated effort crossing jurisdictions and including agencies
from the local to the federal level.
“With a large plan crash, you
could have miles and miles of debris,” Camden County Emergency
Management Coordinator Samuel Spino said.
“That’s why you need a coordinated effort.”
That
would include teams securing the plane’s main body, searching it for
survivors, removing the dead. It would mean sending teams out to nearby
fields and into the forest to look for others, and for pieces of debris
to be combed over by investigators.
Members of community emergency
response teams (CERTs) - volunteer groups that provide certain services
generally when professional responders are not yet available or to help
them - took part in the drill along with police, firefighters, EMS and
others.
Spino said the drill was a long time coming. It took about two years of planning, he said.
Part
of the difficulty lay in getting 24 groups - with schedules and
commitments of their own - together for a large-scale training drill,
Spino said.
“But in a real-life situation like this, they’re all coming,” he added.
A prop passenger plane placed near the Raceway gates served as ground zero. The craft lay, snapped open just behind the cockpit.
The tail was missing, and an engine lay to the side, along with a wheel and landing gear nearby.
The
drill’s scene altogether was bound by the Mullica River and Jackson
Road, Spino said, and was broken into three general divisions.
Practice
like Sunday’s is especially important in an area surrounded by
airports, including Philadelphia and Atlantic City International, as
well as Cross Keys Airport, said Camden County Director of
Communications and Community Affairs Dan Keashen.
“This area sits between several large airports,” Keashen said. “God forbid one of those planes is highjacked by terrorists.”
But in such an event, he and Spino say, responders from throughout the area will be ready.
Akhtar Amin Monday, April 30, 2012 PESHAWAR: Even after five days the federal government has not implemented the Peshawar High Court (PHC) order to suspend the Civil Aviation Authority director general.
Taking serious notice of the Bhoja Air crash and non-implementation of the high court orders passed two months ago, a division bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan on April 25 ordered immediate suspension of CAA head Nadeem Yousafzai till the completion of reinvestigation of the Airblue and Bhoja airplanes’ crash through an independent inquiry by international experts.
The sources told The News that suspension of the CAA chief would take time as the competent authority for his suspension was the prime minister and he was under immense pressure after his conviction by the Supreme Court in the contempt of court case.
Sources in the Civil Aviation Headquarters told The News that the CAA director general was going to challenge the verdict next week in the Supreme Court. During course of hearing, the CAA’s senior legal advisor Obaidur Rehman Abbasi had informed the bench that the new director general had taken over about 20 days ago and he was fully implementing the court order.
The bench stated in the order that the Ministry of Defence and CAA had ignored the court’s order issued on February 21 in which the ministry was directed to form a separate board of inquiry, including foreign experts, to inspect all aircraft of the PIA and private airlines, examine the CAA performance and check the capability of flying pilots and other crewmembers within 90 days.
The chief justice had observed that had the court’s order been implemented the Bhoja Air crash could have been averted and precious lives saved.
Umar Farooq Adam, counsel for former MNA Marvi Memon and legal heirs of Airblue crash victims, said on Sunday the federal government was bound to implement the high court decision without any delay if the Supreme Court did not suspend it. He said five days had passed and the federal government had yet to implement the decision.
Human Rights Commission, South Asia representative for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, Abdul Samad Khan Marwat also said the federal government should immediately suspend the CAA chief.
Private pilots can log some flying time while helping people in need.
A regional pilots' network is recruiting additional volunteer pilots to use their own planes to fly ambulatory medical outpatients from outlying areas to any of a number of Houston area airports (large and small) where other volunteers will take them to their medical appointments or temporary lodgings.
Expenses incurred by pilots are tax deductible.
For more information, contact Volunteer Houston from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays at 713-965-0031 or visit www.volunteerhouston.org.
Alex Krinichanskiy, managing director, Transaero Airlines, Joseph Millar, executive chairman Transaero Engineering Ireland, and William McGonagle, chief executive Transaero Engineering Ireland at their Shannon airport facility yesterday.
Photograph: Kieran Clancy
CIARÁN HANCOCK
~
RUSSIA’S SECOND biggest airline Transaero expects to create about 100 new jobs at its newly acquired aircraft maintenance business in Shannon in the next 12 months.
It has also held talks with Shannon airport about possibly routing flights from Russia to the US through the Co Clare facility, where its passengers could clear customs and border protection.
Commenting on the potential for additional jobs in an interview with The Irish Times on Friday in Shannon, Alex Krinichanskiy, Transaero’s chief executive said: “I would think about another 100 over the next year. That’s the close horizon and then who knows how many more.”
The Shannon business, now called Transaero Engineering, has already hired 16 apprentices, almost double the level of 2011.
Transaero recently acquired Air Atlanta Aero Engineering, which has 241 staff and was set up in 1962.
Mr Krinichanskiy said the potential existed for a “multi-million-dollar” investment in the facility, which is located beside the airport in the Shannon free zone. He said it has held preliminary talks with state agencies Shannon Development and the IDA about investing in its facility here.
“We are spending close to $70 million a year globally on heavy maintenance,” he explained. “We are going to be spending a big chunk of that here [now]. The question is do you want the rest?
“If you want us to spend that money here, let’s figure out how to do it together.”
Mr Krinichanskiy said Transaero’s first priority was to return the Irish business to the black. It made a loss of about €700,000 last year while its turnover fell by 14 per cent to €19 million.
“For the first year we will return them to profitability . . . and integrate into the Transaero structure.”
He said he expected the Irish business to achieve turnover of “in excess of €22 million” this year.
Transaero plans to use the Shannon business to conduct a lot of the heavy maintenance work on its 82 aircraft.
The Irish company recently began the process of certification for Boeing 747s and 777s. It currently works on 737s and 767s.
“We don’t have a heavy maintenance facility in Moscow and don’t have plans to develop that. We always wanted to control more of our own destiny on the maintenance side and were on the look out for a good facility to partner with.”
Transaero is due to take delivery of four 787 Dreamliner from Boeing in 2014 and Mr Krinichanskiy indicated that the Shannon plant might be upgraded to handle maintenance work on this new aircraft model.
“That’s what we are looking at. Probably 787 makes much more sense because in this part of the world, there is just one company that is getting there to service 787s. That is one of the plans we have in mind when talking to Boeing. It would open up endless opportunities for our affiliate here.”
Mr Krinichanskiy said there was “no business case” currently to operate direct flights to Ireland from Russia but indicated that it might use Shannon as a stopover on services to the US.
“Shannon is unique in terms of offering a full pre-clearance for the United Sates,” he said. “Transaero operates to New York,Miami and Los Angeles. We are looking for secondary destinations in Boston and Chicago and other areas. There may be an economic and commercial case behind that.”
The airline held talks with Shannon airport in December.
Transaero recorded profits of $150 million on turnover of $3 billion last year.
Mr Krinichanskiy said he expected revenues to rise to $3.6 billion this year. The airline employs 9,500, primarily at bases in Moscow and St Petersburg.
A Civil Aviation Authority investigation into the death of glider pilot Mike Dekker has confirmed many pilots' suspicions in relation to the accident, says Marlborough Gliding Club president Carl Jackson.
Many pilots thought that turbulence was a likely cause of the accident, and their suspicions had been supported by the findings of the CAA report released on Thursday, Mr Jackson said.
Mr Dekker, 55, died after his Mini-Nimbus HS7 glider crashed on Orchard Spur near the Taylor Pass while he was attempting a 1000-kilometre non-stop flight in 2009.
The CAA investigation could not reach a conclusive reason for the crash, but said significant turbulence and down draughts were most probably responsible.
Mr Jackson said that despite the findings of the investigation, there was still an element of mystery surrounding the crash. The weather on the day had appeared to be favourable for gliding but proved to be unpredictable.
"Gliding is essentially understanding weather, of which Mike had nearly 2000 hours of practice and many more planning and observing," said Mr Jackson. "Nature always has the potential to be unpredictable, which seems to be true in this case."
As a result of Mr Dekker's accident, most of Marlborough Gliding Club's cross-country pilots now carry GPS trackers on board their aircraft, said Mr Jackson.
The GPS trackers provide position reports on a website which allows a pilot's progress to be tracked.
ERMA -- One thing Freeholder Will Morey vowed to do when seeking the seat he had held since January was to boost the local economy.
On Tue., April 24, Morey offered a resolution to grant an open-end consultant agreement with Steven Baldwin Associates of Albany, NY to aid the county with "airport management consultant services" that are not to exceed $15,000 for six months.
Long a sore point because of its potential, yet with a history of many failed business ventures, the airport seems to offer economic promise. Just how to bring that promise to fruition has been elusive. Large firms, such as Timme Fabrics and Everlon held hope that manufacturing there could be revived. Both failed after brief lives.
Some firms had a decent record there, but went out of business for other reasons.
At the present, there is no fixed base operator to fuel general aviation planes that land at the former US Naval air station. Proposals for that service were to be received by Delaware River and Bay Authority, which operates the airport, on March 7. No decision has been made regarding that important facet of airport operation, especially with the summer increase in flights to the county in private planes.
The freeholders' resolution admits the airport is "an integral part of the county's economy."
Baldwin Associates "specializes in assisting clients in the areas of airport management, organizational, and governance review, performance benchmarking, strategic planning, economic development, tenant lease negotiation, owner's representative services and other services and programs unique to developing airports in an efficient and effective manner."
Jet Aircraft Propulsion by Prof. Bhaskar Roy and Prof. A. M. Pradeep,
Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Bombay. For more details on
NPTEL visit http://nptel.iitm.ac.in
For the past *almost* four weeks, the RV-8 has been at Chorman Airport (Greenwood Delaware) with Russell Aircraft Refinishing with Jim Russell. Yesterday, the finished airplane was rolled out into the sunlight *and the sun blushed*. OK, that’s a bit too dramatic but the paint scheme definitely held its own against the backdrop of puffy clouds and the on-field monster Ag planes. To say I am pleased, is conservative use of the English language.
So, the question I got most – from the first day I brought the airplane home – what color will you paint it? The answer is now silver, bright yellow, pale yellow, black, blue, white, and red. Seven colors in all!
David Simpson poses with his light aircraft and a colleague. Mr Simpson has been held without charge for more than a month on suspicion of murder
8:00PM BST 29 Apr 2012 ~ Investigators in the capital, Bangui, arrested David Simpson, 24, after six hours of interrogation during which they said they held him responsible for the deaths of 18 villagers in the remote south-east of the country.
"It's absolutely ridiculous, there is not a shred of evidence beyond hearsay, but still they've held me illegally, without charge, for more than a month," Mr Simpson told The Daily Telegraph on a mobile phone smuggled into his prison cell.
Mr Simpson, from Pickering, North Yorks, whose company offers wealthy clients the opportunity to shoot lion, Lord Derby's Eland and buffalo, among other species, was helping to clear a road through dense bush in the south of his firm's vast hunting concession on March 23 when his colleagues reported dead bodies found near a local gold mine.
He went to investigate, and says he found the bodies, all male, arranged as if they had been systematically killed. All of the dead men worked at the hand-panning mine, locals said.
"Six of them were all face down in a circle, their heads in the middle, four others were nearby and in total there were 18 dead guys there," he said.
"Some had been beaten to death with sticks, others had had boiling water poured on them first, then killed. It looked exactly like reports I've seen of other Lord's Resistance Army attacks. It was pretty awful."
The rebel army, headed by Joseph Kony, continues to terrorise civilian populations in the remote jungles of southern CAR, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
Kony was the subject of an internet video that went viral last month, viewed more than 90 million times.
"We called the military, they came the next day and basically freaked out," Mr Simpson said.
"They took a few photographs on their mobile phones and that was the sum total of their investigation. They left immediately."
Days later, Mr Simpson's aircraft was fired at as he took off from the nearest town, Bakouma. He says locals angered that they were not given jobs at his company, owned by a CAR-born Swedish hunter, were to blame.
"It's pretty clear that the killings had nothing to do with us, but it helped some of the guys in town follow their own agendas to blame us," he said.
Both Mr Simpson and his boss, Erik Mararv, went voluntarily to the capital to answer questions, and both were immediately arrested. Neither has been charged but both are still imprisoned, more than a month later.
Emelie Mararv, Mr Mararv's wife, confirmed that there had been no information about why the two men had been jailed, and no sense of when they would be released.
Firmin Findiro, the CAR Justic Minister, told The Daily Telegraph: “The government is not accusing the men of anything - the case will be brought before a magistrate next week who will see whether they actually had any role in the incident.”
“The men have legal representation and I have received both the British and Swedish consuls regarding the matter.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said they were providing consular assistance.
News Chief Correspondent Published: Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 7:43 a.m.
WINTER HAVEN -- There are probably no more than 10 people in the United States who still fly an airplane at the age of 90, according to Jon Brown, owner of Brown's Seaplane Base in Winter Haven. One of those rare individuals was recently spotted in the air on his 90th birthday. Jim Torphy flew his 1946 Piper Cub airplane solo on April 17, and called it his "birthday flight."
"My son, who is a corporate pilot for 34 years, encouraged me to do it. It didn't feel any different, though. I didn't feel any sense of gratification or accomplishment. It's just like tying your shoes; just routine," he said.
Brown said, although Torphy is still active and flies regularly, this was still a surprise to him.
"It was 7 a.m. I was getting planes ready. This plane flew over me and I said, 'I bet that's Jim,' so I turned my lights on and honked the horn and he followed me back to the hangar," Brown said.
Torphy retired at age 62 from Bloomington, Ind., where he was the airport operator for many years. A friend took him to Brown's Seaplane Base, and Torphy started working there as a flight instructor. Later, he and his wife, Gabby, of 63 years relocated to Winter Haven.
"Jim came down here in 1973, when my father owned the base. He got his seaplane rating. He was a land plane pilot first," Brown said.
Torphy got the "flying bug" at an early age.
"I can remember when I was 12 years old some barnstormers came through our town and took me for a ride. I got the bug. I really wanted to fly. I am real fortunate. Anybody who had a plane back then made their money hauling booze in the prohibition days," Torphy said.
As a young man, Torphy worked on B17s and was also a flight engineer. He attended both B29 gunnery school and B29 electrical school in the 1940s. He then trained ROTC classes at the Torp Aero Service Flight School in Bloomington for Indiana University, beginning in 1963.
"We were training them for private pilot course. After college graduation, they were going to active duty military. I was contracted by Indiana University until the end of the Vietnam War," Torphy said. "Flight training was not offered at all the colleges. We trained mostly Army and Air Force, and had one Marine."
Brown said hundreds of Torphy's students became pilots for the Army, Air Force and Marines, including United States astronaut Kenneth Bowersox.
More than 130 people celebrated Torphy's 90th birthday party, recently held at Brown's Seaplan Base. Torphy even got a letter from coach Bobby Knight of Indiana University. Torphy flew him Knight across the country when he was in Bloomington.
"The party was a big surprise to me. A lot of people came. The furthest one was from Dallas," he said. "They put a plaque on the back porch (of Brown's Seaplane Base.) It is officially the 'Jim Torphy Room.'"
Brian Meadley attended the birthday bash. He flew in England in the Royal Air Force for 20 years. Meadley, 81, is a part-time flight instructor at Brown's Seaplane Base.
"We have a holiday home in Winter Haven. When I'm here, I'm practically full-time," Meadley said. "I think he's a terrific chap. I've known him for 25 years, and flown with him several times. He doesn't miss a thing in the air. He is still a very accomplished pilot and also a very nice man. It was a jolly-good party in the hangar at the seaplane base."
Brown said Torphy is rare, as many pilots eventually lose their certification due to medical or physical circumstances.
Demonstration of the corrosion found on the horizontal stabilator bearings. I would suspect that if you have the original stabilator bearings in your plane they probably look like this. Would you want to be flying in a plane with bearings that are unlubricated for 50 years. If your A&P is not correctly inspecting the stabilator horn by removing it, then what's the chances that he'll come across bearings in this condition? I'm glad my A&P is doing his job and hope he doesn't retire soon! Is yours? I can't express enough that there was no experience of resistance when moving the control surfaces with these bearings installed so please do not think that your bearings are good because you can't feel it.
Private Jet Central has added to its ever growing fleet of aircraft. The new Citation Mustang is expected to enter service in early June 2012.
London, UK (PRWEB) April 29, 2012
As
part of their moves to modernise and expand their fleet of aircraft
Private Jet Central are pleased to announce their latest addition a
Citation Mustang light jet. The Mustang is expected to enter service in
late May or early June 2012. It will be used for domestic flights in
the UK and short haul flights to a number of destinations around Europe.
The Citation Mustang has a maximum range of 1,150 nm and can carry
four passengers and a crew of two at speeds of up to 340 knots and a
cruising altitude of 41,000ft. The interior is configured in a club
seating arrangement to maximise the space available. All of the
amenities one would expect from a jet manufactured by Cessna are there
including fully reclinable leather seating, multi-media functionality
and ample storage facilities in the cabin and also in the nose and tail
cone baggage compartments.
Andrew Hudson at Private Jet Central has said “The Citation is a
fantastic plane and we are looking forward to its introduction”.
Pleasure and business users who want to fly private jet from London to Nice
can book flights quickly and easily on the Private Jet Central website.
Frequent flyers can now benefit from the I-Jet Card which offers
significant time and financial savings to Private Jet Central clients.
About Private Jet Central
Private Jet Central is a global jet charter company with offices in
the United Kingdom, United States and the Middle East. Established in
2001 they offer a range of jet charter services to business and pleasure
users in the UK and Europe. As well as jet charters Private Jet
Central offer a range of aircraft management services. More information
on the full range of services offered by Private Jet Central is
available from their website at http://www.privatejetcentral.com/ and also by contacting any of their offices by phone or via e-mail.
Four Mississippi communities, the Shoals and an airport in West Virginia agree that Silver Airways is the airline they want to provide commuter air service under the Essential Air Service program.
The next step will be to convince the U.S. Department of Transportation that Silver Airways should be awarded the contract, even though its bid is significantly higher than the other airline seeking the contract.
Silver Airways, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is proposing non-stop flights from the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on a 34-seat Saab 340B-plus aircraft, an upgraded version of a twin-turboprop plane that flew out of the Shoals for years under the colors of Northwest Airlink and Delta Connection.
The proposal is an "all or nothing" deal that includes airports in Greenville, Tupelo, Hattiesburg/Laurel, all in Mississippi, and Greenbrier/White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
The proposal has to be recommended by all five communities and be approved by the transportation department for all five communities.
The only other airline to submit a bid for Shoals air service was Air Choice One, of St. Louis, Mo., which is offering six proposals, including two all-inclusive proposals for the Shoals and three Mississippi communities.
Air Choice One proposals involve 24 weekly nonstop flights to the Memphis International Airport. The airline would utilize either an eight-seat, twin-engine Piper Navaho or a single-engine Cessna Caravan.
Three of the remaining four options involve the Shoals and Tupelo, Miss., including one that would provide service from the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport to Atlanta on an eight-seat Jetstream aircraft and an option for flights to Memphis on an 18-seat Jetstream.
The five communities appear to be solidly behind the Silver Airways bid despite it's costly price tag, which is more than double the price associated with Air Choice One even though several factors in each company's proposals are different. One of Silver's proposals involves a federal subsidy of more than $16 million.
Delta Airlines is currently providing air service at the airport in Muscle Shoals, but company officials are seeking to withdraw with the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes airlines that agree to provide service to mostly rural communities that are more than 50 miles from a larger airport.
Delta is receiving a subsidy of just under $1.8 million this year.
Northwest Alabama Regional Airport Director Barry Griffith said he does not expect any opposition to the bid from the local Air Services Committee.
Griffith said a local committee that reviews the EAS proposals and the airport's board of directors support the Silver Airways proposal.
In fact, there has been a coordinated effort among the Shoals, the Mississippi communities and the West Virginia community to support Silver Airways' bid.
"We're in the process of putting together our response as a coordinated response from all the airports in support of the Silver Airways bid as the best option and the one that has the best chance of being successful," Griffith said.
He said the Shoals and the other communities will send letters of recommendation to the U.S. Department of Transportation at the same time.
"It's safe to say that all three entities, as well as the mayor of Muscle Shoals, support it," he said.
A member of the local EAS committee, Shoals Chamber of Commerce President Steve Holt, said he prefers the Silver Airways proposal because of the Atlanta connection and the type of aircraft.
"Personally, that would be my first choice," Holt said.
Tupelo Regional Airport Director Joshua Abramson said the airport's website received numerous comments from community members who support the Silver Airways proposal.
"We definitely want Silver," Abramson said. "It's really the only option for us."
He said Tupelo travelers prefer to fly to the Atlanta airport because of the number of flights and available destinations.
"Memphis is not the airport it used to be," he said.
Delta Air Lines has cut 25 percent of its service to Memphis, which resulted in about 800,000 fewer passengers, Abramson said.
Abramson said he is concerned about the amount of the Silver Airways bid.
"That's what we're working on," he said.
Airport boardings were about 12,000 in Tupelo in 2011, Abramson said. Just more than 8,000 passengers used the Muscle Shoals airport in 2011.
He said the price may be more of a concern to the West Virginia community that's included in Silver Airways' bid.
Jerry O'Sullivan, manager of the Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg, W.Va., said Silver Airways was the only airline to submit a proposal to provide air service in his community.
"I'm all in on this bid," O'Sullivan said. "This is just what we want."
O'Sullivan said his community, like the others, needs the Atlanta route.
"I hope this bid goes through," O'Sullivan said. "We're going to try to work politically from our end. It would be the best thing for us, but there are some questions about the high price."
The deadline to submit comments to the U.S. Department of Transportation about the proposals is May 10.
Griffith said he expects transportation officials to act quickly to select a carrier to replace Delta. - PROPOSALS Proposals for providing commercial air service to and from Northwest Alabama Regional Airport in Muscle Shoals:
Lenami Godinez has been identified as the female hang-glider who suffered a fatal fall near Agassiz, Saturday.
Photograph by: Screengrab, LinkedIn.com
The pilot involved in Saturday's tragic hang-gliding accident near Agassiz, William Johnathan Orders, 50, of Burnaby, is shown in a photo from his website.
The pilot involved in Saturday's tragic hang-gliding accident near Agassiz, William Johnathan Orders, 50, of Burnaby, is shown in a photo from his website.
The pilot involved in Saturday's tragic hang-gliding accident near Agassiz, William Johnathan Orders, 50, of Burnaby, is shown in a photo from his website.
The pilot involved in Saturday’s tragic hang-gliding accident in the Fraser Valley has been charged with obstructing justice.
William
(Jon) Orders, 50, of Burnaby, was arrested shortly after the incident,
in which 27-year-old Lenami Godinez became detached from the glider and
fell 300 metres to her death.
RCMP Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth said
the charge against Orders is in connection with “an allegation that he
withheld potential key evidence which could help determine whether he
played a role in any wrongdoing.”
She wouldn’t give further
details. Orders has been remanded in custody until Wednesday when he
will appear in Chilliwack Provincial Court.
Orders, who runs
Vancouver Hang Gliding and has 16 years experience, was piloting a
tandem glider on Mount Woodside near Agassiz when Godinez started to
fall shortly after launch. While Orders struggled to hold on to the
young woman, she clutched desperately at the pilot, even grabbing his
feet, before she fell.
Her body was found seven hours later in a clearcut, about 20 metres from one of Orders’ shoes, after an extensive search.
The Agassiz RCMP and the B.C. Coroner’s Service are investigating.
“This is an absolutely tragic accident, there are really no other words to describe it,” Hollingsworth said.
“What
exactly happened as far as why she fell is still under investigation
and we are hoping the investigation will answer that question as well as
other questions we all may have.”
The accident was a tragic end
to what was an anniversary present to Godinez from her boyfriend, who
was filming her as she started her inaugural flight.
Michelle
Nilson, a Simon Fraser University professor who had worked and
socialized with Godinez, said days before the flight the young woman had
posted on her Facebook site: “We’re going hang-gliding.”
“For it
to end like this ...,” Nilson said in an interview. “No matter who would
have been in this accident, it would have been tragic. But it’s
especially tragic because of who Lenami was. She was such a diplomatic,
sweet and amazing person to work with.
“With her there were so many ways in which that came through.”
Nilson
said she didn’t know Godinez well, but noted the young woman’s quick
smile, comforting nature and generous spirit drew people to her.
When
Godinez, who had worked as an assistant at SFU, left to take a job as a
communications specialist at the 2010 Olympics, her co-workers threw
her a party — something that is rarely done.
“She was one of the few people we celebrated,” Nilson said. “It was really such an honour to work with her.
“She made people feel comfortable in a way that was quite rare.”
A Facebook memorial site set up in Godinez’s memory reflects similar sentiments.
Godinez,
who was originally from Mexico but had lived the past nine years in
Vancouver, was described by friends and co-workers as a warm, thoughtful
and adventurous young woman, who loved the outdoors and the
environment.
Godinez’s last job was as section head of administrative services for the South Coast Region at B.C.’s Ministry of Environment.
“Lenami
— although the time that we knew each other was relatively short, I
feel blessed to have known your kind heart, pure soul and deep passion
for environmental change,” wrote Alina Cheng. “May your spirit soar and
serve as a guiding light for others to follow.”
CHILLIWACK, B.C.—A man who piloted the hang glider from which a Vancouver woman fell to her death has been charged with obstructing justice over allegations he withheld evidence in her death.
RCMP Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth says 50-year-old William Orders is accused of withholding potential evidence that could help determine whether he played a role in any wrongdoing.
Orders told witnesses after Saturday’s incident that he tried desperately to hold on to the woman shortly after the hang glider set off over the Fraser Valley.
Twenty-seven-year-old Lenami Godinez was killed when she fell about 300 metres from the glider seconds after it took off from Mount Woodside.
Godinez and her boyfriend bought the hang-gliding experience to celebrate their anniversary and her boyfriend was waiting for his turn when he saw the young woman fall.
Hollingsworth says Orders is being held in custody until he faces the charge in court on May 2.
Lenami Godinez has been identified as the female hang-glider who suffered a fatal fall near Agassiz, Saturday.
Both the coroner and hang gliding experts are baffled as to how a
young woman fell 300 metres to her death while on a tandem flight in the
Fraser Valley.
The accident on Saturday afternoon claimed the
life of Lenami Godinez, 27, who has lived in Canada for nine years since
moving from Mexico. Godinez worked as an administrator with the
provincial government.
Godinez was with her boyfriend and it was the first time she had ever been on a hang glider.
But
according to Jason Warner, a spokesman for the Hang Gliding and
Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC), the pilot was very
experienced.
Warner also said those in the industry believe the accident is the first of its type ever in Canada.
The tragedy unfolded shortly after the two went into the air at Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley, near Agassiz.
Somehow
after takeoff, as the glider was about 300 metres from the ground,
Godinez slipped out of the harness system in place to hold her onto the
glider.
As she broke free, she grabbed onto the pilot’s legs in desperation, pulling his shoes off his feet as she lost hold.
It
was those running shoes that fell from the sky that eventually helped
search and rescue workers locate Godinez, who fell into a heavily wooded
area.
Warner said a member of the search party first found a shoe and it helped lead them to Godinez.
He insists the pilot was well trained and experienced in tandem flights.
“At this point it is being looked at if it was pilot error or equipment error,” he said.
Warner said the pilot desperately tried to hold onto the woman as she broke free.
“The pilot did everything he could to hang onto her,” he said.
Warner believes this is the first fatality stemming from a flight with two people.
“This has never happened in Canada before,” he said.
Barb
McLintock of the B.C. Coroner Service said a coroner was on the scene
and the cause of the tragedy has yet to be determined.
The sport of hang gliding is not regulated like the airplane industry, she notes.
“We
will do a very thorough investigation into this unfortunate accident,”
she said. “We have a bunch of questions and no answers at this point,”
she said.
”Obviously we have to look at the (harness) systems in place and are there enough systems,” she said.
McLintock said she too has not heard of any tandem hang gliding fatalities.
“Nobody
can remember a tandem accident like this,” she said. “They have
fail-safe systems. It is too early to know what went wrong.”
Search
and rescue volunteers took several hours to find the woman’s body in
the area below Mount Woodside. The site is a popular launching pad for
hang gliders.
VANCOUVER — A female hang-glider, who detached from a tandem flight
shortly after launch near Agassiz Saturday, tried desperately to cling
to the pilot’s feet before falling 300 metres to her death.
Jason
Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
of Canada, said the pilot knew almost immediately something was wrong
after the pair launched off the popular Mount Woodside just before noon.
He tried to grab the 27-year-old woman, identified as Lenami Godinez,
and sought to hold on to the straps of her harness but she slid out of
his grasp, grabbing his feet in a last-ditch attempt to hang on.
Godinez’s body was found by searchers about seven hours later, about 20 metres from one of the pilot’s shoes.
“[The
pilot] realized right away from take-off that something was wrong and
he tried to grab her,” Warner said. “The shoe ended up being a clue to
finding her.”
Upper Fraser Valley RCMP Sgt. Mark Pelz said police
had received a call shortly before noon Saturday that a woman riding
tandem on a glider had fallen.
Police, aided by helicopter, search and
rescue teams from Chilliwack and Kent-Harrison, as well as local
paragliders combed the terrain for hours. One of the paragliders spotted
a shoe earlier in the day but didn’t link it to the pilot until just
before the search was to be called off.
Warner said they retraced
their steps and found Godinez, who is originally from Mexico but has
lived in Canada for nine years. She had worked for the administrative
services south coast region division at B.C. Ministry of Environment.
A
base for the search was set up at the Koffee Kettle Motel. Owner Dahlia
Simper said the woman’s boyfriend watched in horror as just a few
minutes into the flight she fell out of her harness and grabbed the
pilot until she could no longer hold on to him and fell.
“It’s really sad,” she said.
Simper, who has owned the motel for 10 years, said there have been several hang gliding accidents in the area in recent years.
Warner,
safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of
Canada, said he can’t recall a fatal accident like this happening in
Canada. “We work very hard to make sure our safety standards are adhered
to,” Warner said.
He said the pilot had more than a decade of
experience hang gliding all over the world and was up to date on his
membership with the association, which monitors instructors. But he
noted this has been “an irregular year” with two paragliding accidents
in which the pilots injured their backs after failing to proper prepare
for takeoff. Earlier this month, a paraglider crash-landed into a tree
near Agassiz after jumping off Mount Woodside.
Warner said HPAC is
considering new safety measures following Saturday’s tragedy. “We’re
now strongly encouraging the buddy system where somebody looks at your
equipment before you launch,” he said.
Warner said the pilot is
emotional and upset. He has apologized to the woman’s boyfriend and both
are receiving support from victim’s services. It was the woman and her
boyfriend’s first time trying the sport, said Warner.
“At this point there is an investigation so we don’t know if it was a pilot error or an equipment failure,” he said.
The BC Coroner’s Service is investigating.
Barb
McLintock, spokeswoman for the BC Coroner’s Service, said an
investigation will determine whether there needs to be more fail-safe
measures in the sport. “There’s nothing to suggest this is anything but a
very tragic accidental death,” she said. “We need to know what
happened; what went wrong.”
Pelz said the police aren’t
investigating criminal charges but that could be a possibility as well
as potential civil implications because the pilot was contracted to
provide the service.
RCMP remove a hang glider from Mt. Woodside near Harrison Mills Saturday after a passenger in a tandem flight fell from the craft. Search crews found her body late last night.
RCMP remove a hang glider from Mt. Woodside near Harrison Mills Saturday after a passenger in a tandem flight fell from the craft. Search crews found her body late last night.
A woman was killed when she plummeted into a heavily treed area near Harrison Mills after becoming detached during a tandem hang gliding excursion Saturday.
The Vancouver woman, who is believed to be in her 20s and originally from Mexico, had just taken off with a guide around noon from the popular Mt. Woodside launch point when she fell an estimated 300 metres to the rough terrain below.
"Within 30 seconds of takeoff the pilot realized something was wrong" and tried to wrap his legs and desperately hold on to the passenger, said Jason Warner, spokesman for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC).
"I don't think she would have known what was happening [at first]," he added. "[The pilot] tried everything."
The woman's boyfriend, who had purchased the excursion as an anniversary gift, was filming from the launch point with the pilot's family as they watched in horror as she desperately grabbed onto the pilot's feet as she tumbled.
The "completely distraught" pilot, who's birthday was also yesterday, was able to land safely, said Warner. Police aided by helicopter, Chilliwack Search and Rescue, Kent-Harrison Search and Rescue, as well as local paragliders combed the hilly terrain about eight kilometres west of Agassiz.
The search was stymied until a paraglider mentioned he had found a man's shoe earlier in the day, but had dismissed it.
The shoe belonged to the pilot of the ill-fated flight and, using it as a reference point, rescue crews found the woman's body at about 7: 30 p.m. and called the B.C. Coroner's Service. It is not known if the accident was a result of an equipment failure or pilot error.
Warner said the tragedy is believed to be the first such hang gliding accident of its kind in Canada. HPAC will be reviewing its safety standards and licensing as a result, he said.
Boyfriend looks on in horror as accident happens just after takeoff
A female hang glider detached from a tandem flight shortly after launching Saturday near Agassiz and plummeted to her death in a heavily treed area.
The Vancouver woman, who is believed to be in her 20s, had just taken off with a guide around noon Saturday when she fell an estimated 300 metres.
"Within 30 seconds of takeoff, the pilot realized something was wrong" and tried to wrap his legs around the passenger in a desperate attempt to hold on, said Jason Warner, spokesman for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.
"[The pilot] tried everything."
The young woman's boyfriend, who had reportedly purchased the excursion as an anniversary gift, was filming from the launch point with the pilot's family.
They watched in horror as she desperately grabbed onto the pilot's feet as she tumbled.
The "completely distraught" pilot, who was celebrating his birthday Saturday, was able to land safely, said Warner.
Police aided by helicopter, Chilliwack search and rescue, Kent-Harrison search and rescue, as well as local paragliders, combed the hilly terrain about eight kilometres west of Agassiz and below the popular rockface launch point.
The search was stymied until a paraglider mentioned he had found the pilot's shoe from the ill-fated flight earlier in the day, but had dismissed it.
Using the shoe as a reference point, the RCMP and search-and-rescue crews found the woman's body at about 7: 30 p.m.
Dehlia Simper, owner of the Koffee Kettle Motel, the base for the search, said there have been several hang-gliding accidents in the area in recent years.
It is not currently known if the accident was the result of an equipment or pilot failure.
Warner said the tragedy is believed to be the first hang-gliding accident of its kind in Canada.
The Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada will be reviewing its safety standards and licensing as a result, he said.
Investigators have found the body of a
woman missing after she fell from a hang glider during a tandem flight
on Saturday afternoon.
The passenger, whose name has not been released, took off with a professional glider from Woodside Mountain, British Columbia.
She is believed to have fallen from the aircraft after a harness came loose, sending her plummeting 1,000ft.
Local News1130.com reported it was the woman's first time hang gliding.
Kent Harrison Search and Rescue received an emergency call at about 12:15pm after the incident, near Harrison Mills.
About 40 people were involved in the search.
It was not clear what caused the woman to fall from the harness.
Jason
Warner, the safety director of the Hang Glider and Paraglider
Association of Canada, told CBC News the accident happened within 30
seconds of takeoff.
According to News1130 the pilot was uninjured, but was described as being in a state of 'shock'.
'He doesn't know what's up and down at the moment,' Mr Warner said.
His name was not released.
The area is a popular one for beginners, who frequently learn to hang glide and paraglide on tandem rides.
Warner described the incident as 'uncommon'.
The woman's death marks the second high-profile fatality related to hang gliding in recent months.
In
October, 16-year-old Lois Preston, described as an experienced pilot,
died from injuries sustained when her glider crashed in Ashbourne,
Derbys.
