Department Maintains Manslaughter Charges Should Be Filed
Police in DeLand, FL
announced this week the department is recanting its earlier
assertion that pilot William Buchmann was racing skydiver Albert
"Gus" Wing III (file photo, right) to the ground when Buchmann's De
Havilland DHC-6 collided in midair with Wing. The April 23 accident
claimed Wing's life, and caused Buchmann's license to be
suspended.
Friends and family have maintained since the accident occurred
that the report claiming the airmen were playing a game of airborne
"chicken" at the time of the accident was erroneous.
Police say their initial finding was based on witness statements
the two men would often race each other to the ground, with the
loser buying beer.
"From what (Investigator Rick Rockburn) was telling me, [that's]
more of a general comment that was made as people were surmising,
'Well, maybe this is what happened,'" DeLand Police Spokesman Cmdr.
Randel Henderson said in a voice mail to the Daytona Beach
News-Journal Monday. "But nobody actually pointed a finger and said
this is what they were doing."
Henderson went on to say police had viewed the tape from a
helmet-cam Wing had been wearing on the jump, and that led police
to conclude Wing had made a normal descent.
"Rick (Rockburn) said
that the tape, the helmet cam that Gus Wing was wearing, it almost
shows that he was very calm, coming down very slowly, that there
was no race to get to the ground before he was struck by the
airplane," Henderson said.
The new information is not expected to alter the FAA's finding,
however, that Buchmann was to blame for the fatal collision. As was reported in Aero-News,
earlier this month Buchmann accepted a 270-day suspension of his
ticket as penalty for the accident.
According to DeLand police chief Ed Overman, the retraction is
also not expected to change the department's recommendation that
Buchmann face manslaugher charges for reckless or careless
operation of an aircraft.
"Anytime, according to the law, you're reckless and it results
in the death of an individual, the charge is appropriate," Overman
said.
Prosecutors won't determine if charges should be filed until the
NTSB Final Report on the accident is released, said State
Attorney's Office spokeswoman Linda Pruitt. That report is not
expected for about 3-4 months.
Mike Truffer, publisher of DeLand-based Skydive Magazine, said
he hopes the admission that Wing and Buchmann weren't playing
chicken reduces the chance Buchmann will face charges.
"I always thought that (the chicken allegation) was speculation
and an offhanded comment, and never thought Gus Wing and Bill
Buchmann were doing that," he told the News-Journal.