UPDATE: Richland brewer dies in glider crash

A Richland man died when his glider crashed late Friday afternoon about eight miles west of Ephrata, according to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

Kyle Roberson, 64, was piloting a sailplane that crashed into a remote agricultural field near Baird Springs Road Northwest and Road J-Northwest.

He died immediately when the glider hit the ground. An autopsy is planned and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

The Ephrata area is popular with glider pilots because of atmospheric thermal layering during hot weather that helps keeps gliders aloft, the sheriff’s office said.

Roberson was a former co-owner of Shrub Steppe Smokehouse Brewery in Richland, which he helped open around the start of 2013.

He was a member of the Mid-Columbia Zymurgy Association — a group dedicated to using yeast to make anything from beer to cider — and a barbecue hobbyist.

He opened Wingwalker Cafe at the Richland airport in 2014. It has since closed.

He was a former Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researcher who did consulting work as a mechanical engineer.

This story was originally published May 27, 2017 at 10:34 AM with the headline "UPDATE: Richland brewer dies in glider crash."