A 22-YEAR-old Briton was yesterday released without being charged in connection with a fatal gliding accident on Thursday.
The victim, Paul McGough, 41, was killed when his motorised hang glider plunged to the ground in the Melanda area of Avdimou village, Limassol.
The 22-year-old is the owner and one of the managers of a company renting out hang gliders in the village of Pissouri. He was detained on suspicion of operating the concern without a licence and of reckless behaviour for allowing the victim to fly without the proper certification.
McGough was in Cyprus on a week’s holiday from Dubai, where he lives and works with his family, and was taking gliding lessons.
According to press reports, he had had some experience with hang gliding in England, where he took a basic training course, but wanted to complete his training in Cyprus because of the favourable weather.
Preliminary investigations suggest a faulty engine was to blame for the fatal crash.
The primary issue seemed to be how the flying school was able to operate unchecked.
But yesterday a Limassol district court dismissed the case, having found the flying school did not require a specific license to rent out gliders.
Because of their configuration, the hang gliders used by the school were not on the civil aviation’s list of flying motor vehicles requiring a license.
The 22-year-old told the court how he had applied for a licence when first starting out his business, but was then told that he did not need one.
The judge therefore found the suspect had broken no laws, and ordered the case be dropped and the man released.
State pathologist Eleni Antoniou has confirmed that McGough died instantly upon impact.
The victim had taken off a ridge in the Melanda area near the gulf of Pissouri at around 9am on Thursday. An eyewitness said he noticed the hang glider engage in erratic manoeuvring and then start losing altitude, without its operator being able to regain control. The problems began while McGough was flying at a height of around 300 metres.
McGough had reportedly been planning to leave the island and rejoin his family in Dubai today.
Police spokesman Demetris Demetriou was yesterday unavailable for comment.
The accident comes almost a year after a British teenager was killed after being hit by a jet ski driven by her boyfriend.
The boy, 17-year-old James Dudley had lost control of the high-speed vessel and hit Hannah Sutton, 16 while she was in the water.
Dudley was fined £2,000 by a Cyprus court after admitting causing his girlfriend’s death due to negligence and riding a jet-ski underage and without a licence.
The incident again took place in the Pissouri area.
