Family's
suit seeks answers in deadly hang-gliding crash
(As
reported in Chicago Sun-Times 10/6/2005)
By STEVE PATTERSON
Four
weeks after a horrific hang-gliding crash killed two people
in LaSalle County, one victim's family is demanding answers.
Jeremiah
Thompson was killed Sept. 3 while on a tandem hang glider,
learning the hobby from Arlan Birkett, owner of Sheridan-based
Hang Glide Chicago.
An
airplane towed the hang glider into the air, with plans
to reach 3,000 feet before the cable was released and their
tandem hang glide began, an attorney said.
But
200 feet into that ascent, the cable snapped, and the hang
glider plummeted to the ground, smashing to pieces and instantly
killing Thompson and Birkett.
On
Wednesday, Thompson's family filed a negligence lawsuit
against the company, demanding unspecified damages but also
hoping to find out how the crash happened.
"They're
200 feet in the air, and while normally they would glide
to the ground, this hang glider nose-dived to the ground,"
attorney Matthew Rundio said. "We need to find out
why that happened."
Rundio
is now collecting witness accounts of the crash, including
a possible videotape of it happening.
Thompson's
family said, in his obituary, that he died in "the
last of a series of lessons" with Birkett.
Birkett,
47, had been hang gliding since 1987, according to his obituary,
and was certified by the U.S. Hang Gliding Association as
an advanced hang-glider pilot and as a tandem instructor.
Thompson,
32, was a Montana native who came to Chicago to work as
a computer programmer at Epiphany Capital Management.
In
his obituary, his family said he was a member of the U.S.
ski team and was nominated as a Rhodes Scholar before graduating
from Dartmouth College.
