2 dead in hang-gliding accident near Jean

A hang-gliding instructor and his 12-year-old student died Friday afternoon after a crash on a dry lake bed near Jean, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Las Vegas police and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers responded at 2:50 p.m. to the lake bed near Sloan Road and Interstate 15, where witnesses reported a 12-year-old boy had been injured after some type of crash, said NHP trooper Loy Hixson.

A family from out of state had scheduled a tour with a company that tethers hang gliders to the back of a truck to get them in the air, Metro Capt. Peter Boffelli said Friday evening. He didn’t name the company.

The 12-year-old boy was the most excited in the group, so he went first, Boffelli said, adding that the investigation was still in its preliminary stage.

The pair of hang gliders were in the air when the truck pulling the glider turned around abruptly, police said. The driver of the truck thought the tether had been released, as is usually done by the person in the glider.

The glider came crashing down because the tether had not been released, Boffelli said.

The adult instructor, who was only described by Boffelli as a male, died at the scene.

The family of the boy loaded him into a truck and were on their way to a hospital in Las Vegas when they saw a Highway Patrol vehicle on the side of the road, about 10 miles away from the crash, and stopped.

NHP troopers attempted CPR and contacted Metro and the Clark County Fire Department, but the boy died in the truck, Trooper Loy Hixson said.

The two scenes in the accident investigation are in rural areas roughly 20 to 30 miles south of Las Vegas.

Authorities did not give the name or age of the hang-gliding instructor. His body was still in the hang glider at the scene of the wreck about 7 p.m. while Metro and the Federal Aviation Administration investigated.

It was too early into the investigation Friday evening to determine if the accident was due to a mechanical or operational issue, Boffelli said.

Stanley Oloff, an elderly Pahrump man using a motorized scooter, was waiting near the area where the boy died. He was trying to talk to his family, which he said was involved in the crash, and learn details of what had happened.

Oloff said the family was visiting Las Vegas, as they do every summer, from Farmington, N.M.

Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @lauxkimber. Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @rickytwrites.