Missing Minden glider pilot confirmed in wreckage

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MINDEN - Sheriff's deputies confirmed on Monday a body discovered in the wreckage of a glider is that of the pilot they'd been searching for since he last was heard from by radio Friday afternoon.

Geoffrey Loyns, 56, Minden, took off from Minden Airport on Friday afternoon. He was found in the wreckage Sunday morning at an elevation of about 10,000 feet near Boundary Peak, in the White Mountains south of Minden across the California state line, the Mono County Sheriff's Department said.

Deputies are assisting the National Transportation Board in investigating the accident.

Loyns originally was from Cardiff, Wales. A furniture pattern-maker, he moved to San Francisco in the 1980 and also had lived in Colorado.

His daughter, Martine Loyns, 33, of Penarth, South Wales told Britain's Press Association he was believed to have suffered a heart attack. She said he had been flying for 30 years.

"His passion was flying," she said.

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