A charge of criminal negligence causing death has been laid against a hang-glider pilot in connection with an incident in which a 27-year-old woman plunged 300 metres to the ground last year.

William (Jon) Orders, 50, was flying with Lenami Godinez-Avila when she fell seconds after the launch of a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley on April 28, 2012.

Orders, a Burnaby resident, was earlier charged with obstructing justice after police alleged he swallowed the data disk from a video camera aboard his glider.

Orders is scheduled to appear in Chilliwack Provincial Court on Monday.

A report released in August by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada into the incident said Godinez-Avila’s harness was not connected to the glider on takeoff and that the required “hang-check” – a test to ensure that harnesses are hooked in – had not been carried out.

The report ruled out equipment failure as a contributing factor.

The incident occurred as Godinez-Avila and her boyfriend were celebrating an anniversary.

Mount Woodside is a popular launch site with hang gliding and paragliding buffs because it stares into natural prevailing winds — necessary to give lift — and because it offers breathtaking views of Harrison Bay, the Fraser River and Chilliwack below.

Godinez-Avila fell into a clearcut area where a cherry tree has since been planted in her memory.

creynolds@vancouversun.com