Pilot loved flying for charity group

Relatives of a Wauconda business owner and pilot who died in a plane crash Wednesday are remembering him as a soft-hearted man who loved flying.

Paul Harris, 57, was headed to Ohio on a charity mission Wednesday when his single-engine airplane crashed near Defiance, a town in the northwest part of that state.

His destination was Findlay, Ohio, where he was to pick up a passenger and then fly to Waukegan for medical treatment. Harris regularly made such flights as part of a humanitarian group called Angel Flight Central.

A pilot for 13 years, Harris had made 75 flights for the Kansas City-based group over the last seven years, said his wife, Rebecca.

Harris helped create a Great Lakes branch serving northern Illinois and Wisconsin, she said.

"When you’re a pilot and you have the love for flying like he did, most people will look for any reason to fly," Rebecca Harris said today.

Harris was the only person aboard the Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six when it went down about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report.

It had taken off from Campbell Airport near Grayslake.

The cause of the crash may not be known for a year, an FAA spokeswoman said. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board continued investigating the fatal crash Thursday.

Harris was born in Oak Park and grew up in Prospect Heights. A 1968 graduate of Wheeling High School, he met his wife that year at a dance at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. They married the following year.

Memorial arrangements are pending.

Daily Herald wire services contributed to this report.