From excitement to horrible tragedy

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Lenami Godinez-Avila (THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES)

VANCOUVER -- In the moments after Lenami Godinez-Avila plunged to her death during a tandem hang-gliding flight, her boyfriend -- one of a handful of horrified onlookers at the launch site -- turned in the direction she had fallen.

"Lenami!" he screamed into the distance. "Hang on! I love you!"

As mourners gathered this weekend for an informal memorial service at the forest clearcut where the 27-year-old woman's body was recovered, a fuller picture emerged from witnesses of the sequence of events that turned the young couple's anniversary celebration into tragedy and chastened an entire flying community.

On the morning of April 28, the couple's faces conveyed nothing but "joyous expectation" as they soaked in the view atop Mount Woodside in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver, recalled Nicole McLearn, who was there radio-coaching some paragliders.

Their eyes "lit up," she said, when she pointed out a paraglider sailing above their heads.

Mount Woodside is a popular launch site with hang gliding and paragliding buffs because it stares right into natural prevailing winds -- necessary to give lift -- and because it offers breathtaking views of the blue-green waters of Harrison Bay, the muddy brown waters of the Fraser River and the farming community of Chilliwack below.

Just before noon, Frederic Bourgault showed up at the launch site with a friend to train for their tandem paragliding certifications.

Godinez-Avila was in her harness and helmet and flashed a big smile, Bourgault recalled.

Her boyfriend was also getting outfitted with gear for his own tandem flight.

Their pilots that day were William Jonathan Orders, 50, a hang-gliding enthusiast for 16 years and certified tandem instructor for the past three, and Shaun Wallace, a certified tandem instructor from Australia.

Bourgault overheard them discussing who would launch first. It was decided that Orders would.

They called over to Godinez-Avila, who had been snapping pictures with her boyfriend.

McLearn wasn't paying full attention to the hang gliders but she said she remembers seeing at least one of them go through a practice run.

Because Bourgault was positioned behind Orders' glider, he was unable to see if the instructor-pilot had performed a safety "hang check" -- a test to ensure that harnesses are hooked in.

But at the point that Orders and his passenger took off, Bourgault and McLearn both knew something didn't look right.

The pair had run farther down the slope than usual before taking off. Once they were airborne, their silhouettes "didn't look right," McLearn said.

Normally, an instructor and his student should be shoulder to shoulder. But she was below him.

"Oh, she's hanging low," Bourgault remembered saying out loud.

"She's not hooked in," a member of the group said.

McLearn said it appeared that Godinez-Avila's feet were dangling, meaning she was relying on her upper body to hold on.

The instructor seemed to be trying to wrap his legs around her torso, and freed one of his hands to try to hold on to her, Bourgault said.

For a brief moment, Bourgault wondered if things might turn out OK.

But Godinez-Avila kept slipping down his body. About 30 seconds, maybe a bit more, after going airborne, she dropped to her death.

There was a collective gasp back on the hill.

"Oh my God!" someone said.

"No!" the boyfriend said. "No!"

Godinez-Avila appeared to fall with her back to the ground and then tumbled a few times, Bourgault said.

His flying companion couldn't bear to look anymore, he said.

McLearn dialled 9-1-1.

Bourgault said he tried to comfort the distraught boyfriend. He told him he didn't want to get his hopes too high, but there was always a possibility that she survived.

The boyfriend just wanted to go down and find her.

Then, unable to stand still any longer, the boyfriend started running down the road.

Orders has been released from custody after being charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly swallowing a camera card possibly containing video evidence of the flight.

Police have since recovered the camera card.

Orders' instructor certification has been suspended.

-- Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 7, 2012 A8