A British Columbia hang gliding pilot charged with obstructing justice after his passenger plunged to her death is accused of swallowing a memory card that contained footage of the flight, court documents show.
In announcing the charge against 50-year-old William Jonathan Orders, the RCMP would only say Monday that the pilot allegedly withheld key evidence that could help investigators figure out why Lenami Godinez detached from the hang glider seconds after takeoff.
In court documents, the RCMP allege that Orders tried to hide video of his tandem flight with the 27-year-old woman by swallowing the memory card from the camera hoisted on the glider.
Nicole McLearn, a paragliding pilot who witnessed Godinez's fall, said Orders showed her the new camera on his glider before taking off from Mount Woodside in B.C.'s Fraser Valley on Saturday.
"After the accident I did mention to the police: ‘By the way I do believe there is video evidence because I noticed they had the camera set up running by the time they got around to launching so you might want to talk to him about obtaining that,'" McLearn told CTV British Columbia.
The hang gliding adventure was an anniversary gift from Godinez's boyfriend, who helplessly watched as she tried to hold on to the pilot before falling 300 metres into a wooded area.
Her body was found several hours later.
With a report from CTV British Columbia
