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11 months ago
Cyborg Steve Mann details alleged McDonald’s assault
Article by , as posted at http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/cyborg-steve-mann-details-alleged-mcdonalds-assault-889595
via Laptop Mag
No shirt. No shoes. No augmented reality glasses. No service. Earlier this month, human cyborg and University of Toronto Professor Steve Mann, claims he was brutalized and kicked out of a Paris McDonald’s after employees objected to his headset and its ability to record photos and videos of his experiences.
“I’m not sure why the perpetrators attacked, but ‘Perp.’ [Mann’s name for one of his assailants] did mention about cameras not being allowed,” he told us in an exclusive email interview. Mann was unavailable for a phone call because his iPhone was also damaged in the alleged attack.
Though augmented reality headsets like Google’s Project Glass have just started making headlines this year, Mann has been wearing his own home-brewed “EyeTap Digital Glass” computers every day since the early 1980s.
via Laptop Mag
“The current generation EyeTap, which runs on customized WearComp OS, captures images at 120 frames per second in 1080 x 1920-pixel resolution, but according to Mann, these images aren’t stored permanently. However, when Mann’s EyeTap Glass was damaged, it failed to erase some images of his experience at McDonald’s.
“It merely delays rather than records, but when [the EyeTap was] damaged (computer), the leftovers were recovered,” he said. “In this sense Perp 1 [the person who allegedly assaulted Mann] was the person who took all the pictures in the last hour or so, by causing the computer to be broken.”
Mann, told us that, on July 1st, he, his wife and their two children were in line to purchase food at the Paris McDonald’s when an employee approached and informed them that cameras were not allowed in the establishment. After Mann presented the employee with a doctor’s note he carries with him that states he needs to wear his headgear, the employee let him through and a cashier took his order.
via Laptop mag
According to Mann, after he and his family had received their food and taken a seat by the entrance, another McDonald’s employee, whom Mann refers to as Perpetrator 1, approached and angrily tried to pull the EyeTap, which is permanently attached and cannot be removed without tools, off of his head.
“Perp. 1 reached his left hand out and pressed against the frame of my eyeglass, and swung his left hand around a few times pushing and pulling at it,” he told us.
Mann then tried to calm Perpetrator 1 and showed him his doctor’s note, which the employee showed to two coworkers, whom Mann nicknames Perpetrators 2 and 3. After Perpetrator 2 crumpled up his doctor’s note and Perpetrator 1 tore up some other documentation he provided, Perpetrator 1 then allegedly pushed him out the door and onto the street, damaging his gear.
via Laptop Mag
“My Glass started acting a little erratic but I could still see to some degree, but with crosshatches and kind of a freeze-frame like motion as the Eye Glass stopped and started intermittently,” Mann said. The alleged assault apparently loosened a ribbon cable within the device, causing the eye piece to malfunction and flood Mann’s eye with laser light.
However, the device was still functioning until Mann had an embarrassing bodily reaction upon hitting the street, which caused his circuits to short out.
“The actual cause of the final stoppage (which happened shortly after he pushed me out the door) is a bit embarrassing as what happened also is that I had had to really use the toilet, at the time, and it was that I’d been going toward using the toilet but got attacked, so as a result, later, it turned out that my pants became the toilet,” he said.
“The cargo pants I wear have large number of pockets most of the way down both legs, so my iPhone and the processing boards, motherboard of miniature PC, control board of Glass, etc., went dead shortly afterwards, and that’s when the Glass went totally dark. My iPhone and some of the other pieces still don’t work.”
Mann said that, after picking himself up and dusting himself off, he sought out Police in the Champs-Elysees area, but none of the many cops he approached were interested in taking a report or investigating.
“Some of the parts of me started shutting down at different times afterwards,” Mann told us in an exclusive email interview. “I’m still online now but a lot is not working.”
To draw attention to his plight, on July 16th Mann posted an account of the alleged assault on blogspot, causing an international uproar. The incident has so far been covered by more than three dozen major news outlets, including Tech Crunch, Forbes, Mashable and The Verge. A group on Reddit had more than 2,000 comments as of this writing. Sci-fi blog io9 even described the alleged attack as “the world’s first cybernetic hate crime.”
“After first trying with the Police (no luck) and then the Consulate/Embassies (no luck), and then the legal experts and human rights commissioners (no luck), some of whom suggested ‘the court of public opinion,’ I finally brought this matter to the public’s attention, but only after exhausting all other possibilities,” he said.
A representative from McDonald’s told us that the company is still investigating the incident.
“We strive to provide a welcoming and enjoyable experience for our customers when they visit our restaurants,” the company told us in a statement. “We take the claims and feedback of our customers very seriously. We are in the process of gathering information about this situation and we ask for patience until all of the facts are known.”
For his part, Mann said he is not seeking punitive damages, just enough money to fix his EyeTap Glass and perhaps a commitment from McDonald’s to support vision research as his glasses are also designed to eventually help people with vision and memory problems.
No matter how this ends, Mann’s story raises serious questions about technology and privacy. As we carry cameras with us everywhere we go, the question of where and when we can capture our experiences looms large. Google’s upcoming Project Glass will certainly be swept up in the same type of controversy as augmented really eyewear proliferates.
In a paper on wearable computing, Mann describes wearable devices and recording as similar to human memory and says that public establishments like businesses should not discriminate against people whose memories are captured by computer devices. He sees a future in which everyone from memory-impaired Alzheimer’s patients to healthy adults uses wearable tech as an extended memory.
“The ‘Silicon Brain’ of the Mindmesh thus asks the question ‘is remembering recording?’ As more people embrace prosthetic minds, this distinction will disappear. Businesses and other organizations have a legal obligation not to discriminate, and will therefore not be able to prevent individuals from seeing and remembering, whether by natural biological or computational means,” he writes on Interaction-Design.org.
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12 months ago
Our Digital Innocence Just Died. And David Lowery Killed It…
From http://digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120619lowery
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
by paulI spent an entire afternoon reading and re-reading the storm of articles, comments, analyses and emails related to one impassioned and eloquent retort. The New York Times, NPR, Los Angeles Times, Techdirt, Hypebot, Lefsetz, the Huffington Post. Thousands of words, hundreds of comments, dozens of emails, several proposed guest posts; I’m not sure I’ve experienced anything quite like this.
Because David Lowery didn’t just touch a nerve this week, he may have single-handedly crushed years of post-physical, ridiculous digital utopianism. In one crystallizing, cross-generational and unbelievably viral rant.
And after a decade of drunken digitalia, this is the hangover that finally throbs, is finally faced with Monday morning, finally stares in the mirror and admits there’s a problem. And condenses everything into a detailed ‘moment of clarity’…
(1) No, artists can’t simply tour and sell t-shirts.
It doesn’t work. In fact, shockingly few indie artists can pull this off, except for those developed at some point by the major labels (ie, Amanda Palmer) or a serious group of professionals. Most of the others that are managing to squeak out a living on the road are doing it with great difficulty and are working non-stop.
(2) The recording is now effectively worth $0; its surrounding ecosystem has collapsed.
Some people buys CDs. Less purchase vinyl. iTunes downloads are still increasing. But averaged across all formats and personal valuations, the recording has effectively become worthless. And that has had drastic repercussions for the music industry, and the lives of otherwise creative and productive artists.
(3) Spotify is not a beneficial solution for artists. Certainly not right now, and quite possibly, never.
Will Spotify ever put a meal on an artist’s table? That’s extremely speculative. Sure, it might eventually mimic Sweden-like penetration in the US. But that is not happening right now; it’s not a fair solution for artists right now. Instead, it is shuttling people like CEO Daniel Ek towards stratospheric riches, fattening major labels, and potentially giving Goldman Sachs bankers another joyride.
(4) Kickstarter will mean something to artists in the future, but only to a relative few.
Amanda Palmer may hold the world record for a long time, but there will be other Kickstarter stories. Some will come out of nowhere, most will involve previously-established artists, particularly those already developed by a major label or similar entity. This will not replace the vast financing once offered by recording labels.
(5) DIY is rarely effective, and almost always gets drowned by the flood of competing content.
It doesn’t matter if you’re singing directly into the ear of your prospective fan. Because they’re listening to Spotify on Dre headphones while texting and playing Angry Birds. Some can cut through, but most cannot without serious teams, serious top-level marketing and serious media muscle. Justin Bieber ultimately needed the machine, no matter how beautifully his YouTube story gets spun.
(6) Sadly, most artists are worse off in the digital era than they were in the physical era.
Actually, we have David Lowery himself to thank for this realization. Because the implosion of the recording has impacted nearly every other aspect of music monetization (though certainly not music creativity itself.) And its replacement is generally a fraction of what a ‘lucky’ artist could expect in an earlier era.
Again, all great for fans like Emily White, but not so great for everyone else.
(7) Younger people mostly do not buy music; they do buy hardware and access.
They gravitate towards free digital content, and occassionally pay for things like concerts when they have the money. Emily White isn’t a fourteen year-old, she’s a young adult that probably doesn’t want the morality trip. And neither does anyone else - regardless of the generation.
(8) Older people buy less music than before; they more frequently buy hardware and access.
If you really want to sell a marked-up bundle, make another Susan Boyle. It’s still a market that doesn’t revolve around free music and constant fan contact. But older people file-trade, they stream, they steal and they buy less than before.
(9) Google is a major part of the problem.
Lowery is right. Google is not interested in protecting content creators; their interests lie elsewhere. Copyright is a nuisance to them, unless it involves their own code and algorithms. In fact, anything beyond the DMCA erodes their ability to serve customers, remain competitive, and make money. Which is why the Pirate Bay is one of the ‘hottest’ searches, and why adding ‘mp3’ to any artist search produces pages and pages of results.
(10) You are a major part of the problem.
Just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s helping musicians. It’s not file-trading, but the payouts on Spotify, Pandora, Turntable.fm, or whatever else are shockingly low. It’s a rounding error, towards 0. The paradox is that music fans are living in abundance, while artists are barely getting scraps.
(11) Google, the ISPs, and hardware manufacturers have won.
It doesn’t matter how brutal the war with Hollywood becomes; how many Dotcom mansions get raided. Music fans aren’t going to start buying albums again; in fact, beyond the playlist, the concept of pre-packaged bundling will become increasingly foreign to newer generations.
It’s not about who’s right, it’s now the world the entire music community lives in.
(12) Everyone lies about stealing.
I’ve only heard a few people actually admit to file-trading: my close friends, Bob Lefsetz, and Sergey Brin. If you have an iTunes collection of more than a few thousand songs, you’ve almost certainly swapped, torrented, or swapped hard drives in your life. And almost everyone has a collection of a few thousand songs.
(13) Mass-marketed, ‘lottery winner’ style successes will continue.
Niches are available and sometimes responsive; more often, top-down mass marketing wins. And most musicians are playing extremely bad odds.
(14) This ISN’T the best time to be in the music industry.
Conferences like MIDEM make money off this sort of Kool-Aid optimism. But I work in the music business right now; I was at a major label in the late 90s. And the reality is that this is the greatest time ever for fans, but definitely NOT the best time for those trying to make money from those fans. And as David Lowery so darkly described, it can be one incredibly depressing trip for even a ‘successful’ artist.
That’s the reality we now live in, and you really have David Lowery to thank for making it obvious.
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1 year ago
Magnotta accused of eating part of slain student — body parts still missing (with timeline)
MONTREAL — Police confirmed Tuesday they have video evidence Luka Rocco Magnotta, accused of the grisly murder of a Chinese national studying in Montreal, may have eaten some of his victim before sending parts in the mail to political parties.
Investigators also said the right foot, right leg and the head of Lin Jun, 33, are still missing. And several police forces are studying unresolved crimes to see whether Magnotta may be implicated, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
On Tuesday, a human hand and a foot were discovered in Vancouver, each one mailed to a different school in that city. Vancouver police have not linked them to Magnotta.
Montreal police Constable Anie Lemieux said that Montreal police investigators are in contact with Vancouver police to see if there is any link between the packages sent to Vancouver and Lin’s remains.
“You know how it works,” Lemieux said. “It will take some time for tests to analyze what was found in Vancouver and to see if there is any connection with the case in Montreal.”
Lin’s torso was discovered in a suitcase outside a Montreal apartment building on the morning of May 29, sparking a search for suspect that went global. Six days later, on Monday, Magnotta was arrested in an Internet cafe in Berlin.
After offering their condolences to Lin’s family and the Chinese community, Montreal police officers on Tuesday gave a detailed account of the events leading to Magnotta’s capture.
It started with a suitcase that sparked an international manhunt Commander Ian Lafreniere called the biggest in the Montreal force’s history — enlisting the help of police in 190 countries and 30 investigators from France’s national fugitive search unit:
- May 29, 10:15 a.m. Montreal police are called to an apartment building at 5720 Decarie in Snowdon by residents complaining of a foul smell. Lin’s torso is discovered in a suitcase next to a small mountain of garbage bags, old carpets and abandoned furniture in the back of the low-rent apartment complex. Investigators and technicians with Montreal’s Major Crimes Unit spend 18 hours sifting through enough garbage “to fill a 10-wheeler truck” Lafreniere said.
The search turns up body parts, bloody clothing, a “blunt instrument” and papers allowing police to link the crime to Magnotta.
- At 6 p.m., Ottawa police contact Montreal officers to say a package from Montreal containing a foot has been delivered to the headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada.
At the same time, several citizens call police to report a video circulating on the Internet showing a man being killed and dismembered.
“At this point, we know the police in Ottawa had the body part, but we didn’t know if the two were linked,” said Denis Mainville, head of the Major Crimes Unit.
Staff at Canada Post were alerted to look out for suspicious packages from Montreal.
- Meanwhile, police had surveillance video of a nervous-looking Magnotta coming in and out of the apartment building several times with garbage bags. His image matched that of video taken from a Montreal outlet showing him mailing packages. Ottawa Police were advised, a picture of Magnotta sent to them.
- At 9 p.m., postal employees intercepted a package bearing Lin’s hand addressed to the Liberal Party in Ottawa.
- At 11:30 that night, witness statements and personal effects found in the trash led officers, armed with a search warrant, to apartment 208. Inside they found blood on the mattress, table, fridge and freezer.
“We couldn’t say officially that it was the scene of the (murder) but we know there had been a body in that room — it was a crime scene,” Mainville said.
- Quebec’s prosecution bureau was contacted, and a Canadian-wide arrest warrant issued. The Canada Border Services Agency was immediately advised.
They told police Magnotta had flown from Montreal to Paris on May 26, one to two days after the murder was committed, and three days before Lin’s body was found.
- Interpol, the international police organization that funnels information between police forces in 190 countries, was advised. Fourteen hours after Lin’s body was found, the hunt for Magnotta went global. Alerted by Montreal police and provided with evidence and photos, France’s Brigade Nationale de Recherche des Fugitifs, in charge of hunting wanted criminals, assigned 30 officers to the case. Several sightings of Magnotta in Paris were quickly followed by police.
- May 30: Viewing of the video at 4 a.m. allowed Montreal police to ascertain the victim was Asian. They linked this to a missing person’s report filed May 28 for 33-year-old Concordia University student Lin, who was last seen on May 24. A close friend of Lin later confirms the identity.
- May 31: Based on new evidence from the scene and video, Quebec’s prosecution bureau announced it was charging Magnotta with first-degree murder, interfering with a corpse, mailing obscene materials, corrupting morals (via the Internet) and threatening Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
- June 1: An autopsy was performed on Lin. DNA results that arrived Tuesday, minutes before the police news conference, confirmed that body parts at the Snowdon apartment and in Ottawa all belong to him.
- June 4: At 4 a.m. Montreal time (10 a.m. in France) Montreal police were informed that Magnotta was seen boarding a bus for Berlin. At 10:30 a.m., Montreal time, news of Magnotta’s arrest hits the media. At 12:40 p.m., Montreal time, police get confirmation Berlin police have the right man.
“It was a heck of a relief for us to learn through fingerprints that it was the same person we were looking for,” Lafreniere said Tuesday.
Lafreniere and Mainville praised the work of Montreal police labouring through 18 to 20 hour days since the discovery, as well as that of the numerous police forces involved, the media and ordinary citizens who called in more than 400 tips.
“We could not have done it so quickly without all of these factors,” Lafreniere said.
- June 5: Around 1 p.m. Pacific time (4 p.m. in Montreal), two schools in Vancouver each received a package, one containing a human hand and the other a foot. Police were alerted but didn’t specify whether or not they belonged to Lin.
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette -
1 year ago"...interested in stories about himself."
Pretty much inevitable for a narcissist.
Surveillance image shows who authorities believe is Luka Rocco Magnotta in France. (AP Photo/Interpol)Luka Rocco Magnotta, the suspect in a gruesome murder and the focus of an international manhunt, has been arrested in Germany.German police Chief-Supt. Stefan Riedlich told CBC News that authorities apprehended Magnotta in an Internet café around 2 p.m. local time.
“As far as I know he was arrested alone, and there was no struggle,” Riedlich shares.
Kadir Anlayisli, an employee at the Internet café, had spotted Magnotta at one of the terminals before calling the police, according to the Toronto Star.
Anlayisli, 42, shared with a Turkish-language newspaper that he had recognized the man as the subject of a global manhunt.
Magnotta, he says, had requested help with signing on to the computer and was reportedly interested in stories about himself.
Police confronted the suspect a short while later, asking the man if he was indeed Luka Rocco Magnotta. The fugitive simply answered “yes.”
Magnotta is currently being held at a prison in Berlin. He is expected to be brought in front of a judge as early as Tuesday.
The man dubbed the “Butcher of Montreal” was spotted in France on the weekend. Surveillance images caught who authorities believed was Magnotta at Roissy airport in Paris. He was then spotted in a hotel and a local café.
Magnotta is wanted in Canada on charges of first-degree murder and threatening Canadian politicians. He is suspected in the gruesome murder and dismemberment of 33-year-old Chinese student Jun Lin. The story gained national attention last week when part’s of Lin’s remains had been delivered to the federal Conservative and Liberal parties in Ottawa.
“Montreal police said Magnotta left the city on an international flight on May 26,” according to a CBC report. “According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, Magnotta arrived in France at Paris’s Roissy airport the same day.”
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1 year agoZombie Outbreak 2012 (more up dated map)
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1 year agoMore Signs of the Zombie Apocalypse (map)?
May 31, 2012 12:36 AM EDT
From Miami’s recent case of roadside cannibalism to flesh-eating bacteria and a blood-spitting anesthesiologist, a bout of twisted cases are fueling fears of the walking dead. The Daily Beast maps where the past month’s freakish incidents have gone down. Watch out, Florida! Plus, see photos of signs of the zombie apocalypse.
View Zombie Instances, May 2012 in a larger map -
1 year agoNews of the Weird 2012 Pt4: Gay porn star, body parts suspect, may have filmed killing
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1 year agoNews of the Weird 2012 Pt3: Miami Police Shoot (8 times), Kill Naked Man Eating Another Man’s Face
Is this the beginning of the zombie apocalypse?
Surveillance Video Shows Apparent Shooting, Nude Men On The Ground
May 26, 2012 11:30 PM
Click For Update: May 29, 2012
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami police are still tight-lipped about the man they shot and killed on the MacArthur Causeway Saturday afternoon, but new details back claims they had no choice: the naked man they shot was trying to chew the face off another naked man, and refused to obey police orders to stop his grisly meal, which one source now claims included his victim’s nose and eyeballs.
Surveillance video taken from security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building show a police officer arrive on the scene, appear to be startled by the spectacle of two naked men lying on the street, and draw his service weapon. It appears that the officer shot one of the men, but it was difficult to tell in the video.
The bizarre shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m., when police responded to a 911 call about two naked men fighting on a bike path along the Causeway, which was packed with traffic on a busy holiday weekend.
Miami police have not confirmed the details of what happened next, but sources close to the investigation told CBS4 News that officers found one man gnawing on the face of another, in what one police source called the most gruesome thing he’d ever seen.
The fight was taking place at the causeway exit near the Miami Herald building, and amazed officers tried to stop it, ordering the man making a meal out of the other man to stop.
SURVEILLANCE CAMERA VIDEO
The head of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Armando Aguilar, said drugs are at the root of the attack.
“We have seen, already, three or four cases that are exactly like this where some people have admitted taking LSD and it’s no different than cocaine psychosis,” Aguilar said.
In the cases Aguilar mentioned, he said the people have all taken their clothing off, been extremely violent with what seemed to be super-human strength, even using their jaws as weapons.
“Extremely strong, I took care of a 150 pound individual who you would have thought he was 250 pounds,” Aguilar said. “It took six security officers to restrain the individual.
Emergency room Doctor Paul Adams agreed with Aguilar saying similar cases have showed up in the ER.
“We noticed an increase, probably after Ultra Fest,” Dr. Adams said.
Adams said the new LSD is commonly called “bath salts.” The drug, Adams said, can raise a persons body temperature to such a high degree that logic and the ability to feel pain are lost; then delirium sets in and that often leads to disaster.
“We’ve had several deaths,” Dr. Adams said. “Earlier last year, we probably saw our first death from bath salts where people were running on the MacArthur Causeway, under the MacArthur Causeway being chased by the police and then all of the sudden just collapsing.”
Aguilar, who heads the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he has spoken with the officer who responded. Aguilar said the officer saw what the man was doing, and ordered him to stop. He said the man growled at the officer, and then returned to his meal.
Aguilar said the man ate his victim’s nose and eyeballs.
The officer then used his service weapon and shot the man, Aguilar said, but the gunshot had no effect. Other sources confirmed that the man refused to obey, and continued his attack. Aguilar said the officer had no choice but to keep shooting until the attacker was dead.
Investigators are sharing limited details about the confrontation, saying only that the two men were fighting and the officers felt they had no choice but to take deadly force.
“During this confrontation an officer did discharge his weapon striking one of the individuals, said Det. Willie Moreno, spokesperson for Miami Police.
But sources close to the investigation said that dry recitation of the facts apparently doesn’t go far enough. They said the man still would not give in to police commands, so officers fired again.
“That individual has lost his life right now,” Moreno said.
With the attacker dead, lying nude on the pavement, officers and paramedics were able to get to his victim and rush him to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Police sources say the man had virtually no face and was unrecognizable.
Police have shared no information about his identity or condition.
The surveillance video supplied to CBS4 by The Herald under a news sharing agreement is disturbing. At one point, whomever was controlling the cameras zoomed in to the two men lying nude and partially obscured by the MetroMover track. One man is motionless, but the other, presumably the man whose face was attacked, can be seen flailing his legs, possibly in pain.
The Herald used video editing tools to obscure portions of that man’s body as he moved.
The video covers a time frame of about 8 minutes, but despite the shooting of the attacker and the obvious distress shown by the victim, paramedics are not seen attempting to rescue him.
Dr. Adams said when people use the bath salts, they are a major danger to police, medics, and hospital workers.
“They come in and have to be restrained both chemically and physically, and you’re asking for someone to get hurt,” Adams said.
The victim was eventually taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Once the bizarre confrontation came to an end, police were left with the task of figuring out what had happened. The investigation forced the closure of the causeway from Miami Beach to Miami, and also closed an exit to the causeway from I-95.
The investigation snarled traffic for hours and delayed thousands of motorists until ways could be found to get them off the causeway.
Police have had little official to say about the details, and have not released the name of the cannibalistic attacker.
Aguilar said the case also serves as a warning to drug dealers.
“If you are selling this LSD to people, unsuspecting people, on the street and somebody ends up dying as a result, you will be charged.”
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1 year agoNews of the Weird 2012 Pt2: B.C. hang-glider pilot apologizes for fatal flight (and swallowing evidence)Pilot Jon Orders says he swallowed video memory card in a panic
Posted: May 14, 2012 4:58 PM PT
Last Updated: May 14, 2012 6:11 PM PT
Video Content
RAW Pilot apology2:37The pilot in a fatal B.C. hang-glider incident has publicly apologized to the victim’s family, saying he “failed in such a major way” during the tragic flight.
“Please believe me when I say I am sincerely and deeply sorry,” Jon Orders said in a brief meeting with news media in Vancouver Monday.
Orders, 50, was the pilot on 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.
“Every day my thoughts go out to how Lenami’s family and friends must be feeling,” Orders said.
Order also apologized for swallowing a video memory card of the fatal flight, which he said he did in a panic after the flight, but which he quickly admitted to police.
“I would like to apologize to [the victim’s] family, to the police and the public for my panicked action of swallowing the memory card as I did,” he said. “I disclosed to police myself shortly afterwards what I had done with the memory card, as a result of the overwhelming stress I was under.”
Orders was charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the memory card.
Orders had a camera mounted on his hang-glider that recorded video during flights that passengers could keep as souvenirs of the trip.
Lenami Godinez, 27, fell to her death April 28 while hang-gliding. (Family photograph)
RCMP kept Orders in custody and under close scrutiny until the memory card passed through his digestive system. The card was recovered several days later, but RCMP have not revealed its contents.
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 on to Orders’ legs.
“My intention was to give Lenami an amazing adventure and lots of smiles but I failed in such a major way,” Orders said. “I want so much to relive that day and to have it turn out differently.”
He refused to take questions after reading the statement, which did not explain what went wrong during the flight.
Orders has 16 years experience as a hang-glider pilot and became a certified tandem hang-gliding instructor in 2009.
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1 year agoNews of the Weird 2012 Pt1: Woman grabbed onto hang glider guide’s feet before falling to her death
Lenami Godinez is seen in this photo from LinkedIn.comA woman, who detached from her tandem hang glider guide Saturday just west of Agassiz, hung onto the pilot’s feet in a last-ditch attempt before plunging 300 metres to her death.
Jason Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, said the pilot recognized something wasn’t right after the pair took off Mount Woodside — a popular hang gliding destination.
“After the takeoff they realized something was wrong,” he said. “She then grabbed for him. She started falling so she was holding onto him in a bear hug. He was trying to fly and grab her at the same time, within 30 seconds she had freefalled.”
Fire and rescue crews recovered the body of the woman — identified as 27-year-old Lenami Godinez — 20 metres away from the pilot’s shoe at around 7:30 p.m.
Godinez, who is originally from Mexico, had lived in Canada for nine years and had worked as an administrator for the provincial government.
Upper Fraser Valley RCMP Sgt. Mark Pelz said police received a call shortly before noon that a woman, who had been riding on a tandem hang glider, had fallen.
Pelz said they are still determining the cause of the crash and will be looking into anything from equipment failure to pilot error.
“This is very uncommon,” he added. “We’ve had incidents where the gliders don’t land where they’re supposed to and get hung up on trees or get injuries on landing, but not anything like this. It is very a terrible incident.”
Warner said it was the woman and her boyfriend’s first time trying the sport and the trip was to celebrate their anniversary.
He added the association works hard to make sure safety standards are adhered to and does not recall an accident like this ever happening in Canada.
“Everyone has to be certified and licensed in order to be an instructor or tandem pilot,” he said, adding the pilot — who has a decade of experience hang gliding — had apologized to the victim’s boyfriend.
“They got together and talked for 10 minutes (on Saturday),” he said. “It was very emotional.”
Police, along with the hang gliding association and WorkSafeBC, are investigating.
Following
