Paraglider died in failed aerobatics
A RESPECTED Queenstown paraglider successfully completed about seven ‘‘infinity loops’’ in the sky above the resort on April 22 last year.
But Benjamin Thomas Gould Letham (26) was killed after he had insufficient momentum to complete his eighth, was entrapped in his paraglider just after 10am and crashed on to a roof at Queenstown Primary School.
Coroner David Robinson found he most likely died instantly, from ‘‘multiple massive traumatic injuries’’.
The experienced paraglider, originally from Scotland, had been contracted to GForce Paragliding for three years, and amassed more than 345 flight commercial tandem flight hours with the company during that time, completing 2016 flights in total.
‘‘He was regarded by those who knew him as a highlyskilled, highlycapable and very talented pilot,’’ the findings said.
He also flew extensively recreationally.
On April 22 Mr Letham was rostered to work for GForce but, by agreement, pilots could go offduty if there was not sufficient work and undertake solo recreational flights.
Company chief executive Gavin Taylor described that morning as ‘‘not overly busy’’, so Mr Letham went on a personal flight, taking off from Bob’s Peak and intending to land on the Robins Rd school grounds.
During the flight he completed about seven infinity loops — an aerobatic manoeuvre in which the pilot causes himself and the canopy to rotate around a horizontal axis as if somersaulting.
He failed to complete the eighth, which Mr Robinson attributed to insufficient momentum.
‘‘Instead, he fell into the canopy, which was at that point below him.
‘‘He became entrapped within the canopy . . . it collapsed and could no longer function as an airfoil.
‘‘Either due to that entrapment, or the proximity of the ground, he was unable to deploy a reserve chute.’’
His injuries were not survivable.
A CAA investigation found Mr Letham had been practising the ‘‘advanced . . . competitionstyle manoeuvre’’ for about three months and had been witnessed by other experienced pilots to be competent in performing it.
However, the authority considered given the number of loops he carried out and the cumulative loss of height, Mr Letham had insufficient height to recover or deploy his reserve chute.
The CAA investigator said three revolutions would be the norm in a ‘‘standard example of a competition event’’ and Mr Letham’s continuum of about seven over a short distance and height did not provide sufficient room to recover from a loss of control.
Included in the CAA’s recommendation was for a preflight assessment of manoeuvres to be carried out, and the amount to be conducted to be discussed with peers to provide an ‘‘objective risk assessment’’.