Paul WILEY

1982 - 14 AUG 2019

• BIRTH: 1982, Mishawaka, St Joseph, IN
• DEATH: 14 AUG 2019, Alaska

INDEX

[N23214] Penn High School graduate and 3 others die when plane crashes in Alaska
By Joseph Dits South Bend Tribune Aug 14, 2019

Paul Wiley, a Penn High School grad who’d been living in Arizona, died Aug. 4 in a plane crash in Alaska. Photo provided Paul Wiley, a 2001 graduate of Penn High School, was among four men who died when the small plane they were flying crashed Aug. 4 into a mountain south of Anchorage, Alaska. The plane crashed into steep, rocky terrain at 5,000 feet near the Alyeska Ski Resort town of Girdwood, where Wiley had been staying, according to the Anchorage Daily News. An elite cross-country ski team from Alaska Pacific University was training on a nearby glacier when they noticed the plane go down, the newspaper reported. The 37-year-old Wiley had joined the three other men for what was going to be a flight-seeing trip for a few minutes, aboard a Piper PA-22 owned by someone he knew through Arizona connections, the Daily News reported. Wiley had been in Alaska for eight weeks, working odd jobs, fishing and vacationing, said his mother, Nancy Wiley, of Mishawaka. She last heard from him a couple days before the crash, telling her that he was having such a good time that he was postponing his return for four weeks. “He had a photo with a great big halibut,” Nancy Wiley said. “He clearly loved it.” Paul Wiley had left the Mishawaka area five years ago and had been living in Superior, Ariz., for the past year as he looked for a career, his mother said. Paul Wiley is survived by his mother and father, Steven Wiley, both of Mishawaka, and a brother, Preston Wiley, of West Lafayette, Ind. The family is still working on details for a memorial service on Aug. 31. jdits@sbtinfo.com