Hang glider death inquest

A teenage girl who died in a hang gliding crash on her first day of solo flying may have lost control because she was worried about repeating what she thought had been an earlier mistake.

An inquest was told today that Lois Preston, 16, was killed on her second solo flight at Darley Moor Airfield in Derbyshire.

The inquest that is looking into the death of a woman who died during a hang gliding flight, has heard that the tow rope connecting Lois Preston's hang glider to the microlight used to get her airborne was one metre shorter than the specified minimum length of 70m.

It also heard, Lois was slightly too light for the weight prescribed for this model of glider. However, the Air Crash Investigator said it probably wouldn't have made a difference to the accident, just slightly more difficult for her to handle.