A young Illinois man has died after his paraglider crashed into a field, leaving his loved ones and the paragliding community in mourning.
Giovanni Lopez, 21, was killed in the accident on Saturday afternoon in Plainfield, a town about 35 miles southwest of Chicago.
Officers responded to reports of the crash around 2.57pm, according to the Plainfield Police Department.
The Kendall County Coroner’s Office was summoned to the crash site around 3.40pm and formally pronounced Lopez dead. The coroner’s office publicly identified him later that day.
Lopez’s official cause and manner of death is pending the results of an autopsy. The cause of the crash is being investigated by the Plainfield Police Department.
Lopez was an avid paraglider who frequently posted photos and videos of himself in the air to his social media.
Some of the pictures and footage show him serenely cruising through the sky enjoying the view, while other heart-stopping images show him performing spins and acrobatic maneuvers.
Lopez’s friend and fellow paraglider, Curtis Haley, 33, told the Daily Mail that Lopez was ‘a selfless, kind individual who would do nothing but help people.’
Giovanni Lopez, 21, died in a paragliding accident on Saturday afternoon in Plainfield, Illinois
Lopez was an avid paraglider who frequently posted pictures and videos of himself in the air on social media. He is pictured mid-spin in one of those videos
Haley said that he and Lopez, whom he affectionately referred to as ‘Gio,’ had been close friends for about a year after the two met by chance while paragliding.
‘I had an emergency landing myself, and I was standing in the middle of the field not knowing what to do, and this random pilot flew by that I’ve never met before. He saw me, he landed, and sure enough he helped me,’ Haley said.
Haley told the Daily Mail that the death of his friend has been extremely difficult for himself and the small, tight-knit paragliding community.
‘This whole circumstance and situation is hard to believe, and I’m at a loss for words,’ he said, adding that the last time he and Lopez flew together was on Tuesday.
‘I literally couldn’t sleep last night at all. I’ve been up since 3am. I might’ve gotten 15 to 30 minutes of sleep,’ Haley said.
Haley told the Daily Mail that after the crash had been reported but before Lopez was identified, he called various friends in the paragliding community to check on them.
But when he got to Lopez, ‘He didn’t answer. He didn’t answer over and over,’ Haley said, adding that he tried calling 15 to 20 times.
His fiancée went to the crash site and saw Lopez’s glider on the ground, which confirmed to them that he had crashed.
Lopez was remembered by his friend, Curtis Haley, as ‘a selfless, kind individual who would do nothing but help people.’ Lopez is pictured while paragliding
Haley said that he called Lopez 15 to 20 times with no answer after hearing about the accident but before authorities publicly identified the victim. Lopez is pictured in his paraglider
Haley, who recently got engaged and whose fiancée also paraglides, called the fatal accident ‘a wake-up call.’
He said that the paragliding community is in ‘disbelief’ and that many have been in contact discussing Lopez’s death in group chats.
Haley said he has been paragliding for about four years and that Lopez had been paragliding since May 2025.
They had both gone to flight school, ‘so we were taught the right way, and we flew as safe as we possibly could,’ Lopez’s friend said.
He also said that Lopez had been rapidly learning and called him ‘a skilled pilot.’
Haley said that paragliding ‘is as safe as you can make it… It’s just about pre-flight, making sure your gear is in its proper working order and also making sure the conditions are right.’
Lopez’s friend did not want to speculate on what may have gone wrong and caused the crash, but he said: ‘Anything can happen.’
‘We do have intercoms that warn us of aircrafts and air traffic and weather conditions and all of that,’ Haley said.
Haley said that ‘anything can happen’ while paragliding, ‘and Mother Nature can be brutal.’ Lopez is pictured mid-spin in a video he posted
‘But that can’t account for lakefront gusts, and Mother Nature can be brutal and can do different things at different times.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Plainfield Police Department for comment and additional details about the crash.
