The trial for a hang-glider pilot who swallowed a memory card after one of his customers plunged to her death is scheduled to take place next year.

Jon Orders, 50, was the pilot during a tandem hang-glider flight April 28 in the Fraser Valley just east of Vancouver during which passenger Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, fell to her death from a height of about 300 metres.

He was charged with obstruction of justice for swallowing the memory card after the incident, and held in police custody until the card passed through his system.

Orders was later released on bail, with conditions including surrendering his passport and not doing any hang-gliding.

Police say they are still working to recover data from the memory card.

Orders apologized last month to the victim's family for the incident and for swallowing the memory card, saying he did it in a panic after the flight but quickly admitted it to police.

The cause of Godinez-Avila's fall has not been determined.

Witnesses to the fatal flight said Godinez-Avila fell about 30 seconds into the flight, first slipping off the hang-glider, then losing her grip after desperately trying to hang onto Orders’s legs.

The trial before a judge alone is scheduled to begin on April 15, 2013, and last three days.

Source:   http://www.cbc.ca