Pilot, passenger identified in deadly hang glider crash on Outer Banks

Police have identified the pilot and passenger in a deadly hang glider crash on the Outer Banks this week.

Kenneth Budd, 56, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was piloting the ultralight glider when it malfunctioned and landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the town of Southern Shores about 10 a.m. Wednesday. Budd’s passenger, 36-year-old Steve William Fisher, also of Lancaster, was rescued from the ocean and not seriously injured.

Authorities mounted a search for Budd, whose body was found in the ocean that afternoon.

The investigation has been turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board, town officials said.

In April 2020, a Kill Devil Hills man drowned after his motorized paraglider crashed into the ocean near Avalon Pier and he became tangled in his harness. The year before, the same man crashed his glider into a stand of trees near the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills but escaped with minor injuries.

Kari Pugh, kari.pugh@virginiamedia.com