The Alabama man who died while jumping in a wingsuit in the Utah mountains was a professional skydiver who was both fearless and compassionate, according to his obituary.
Jonathan “Jonny” Bizilia, a native of Opelika who worked at Skydive Alabama in Cullman County, died Friday while base jumping in a wingsuit near the Willard Peak summit in Utah. He was 27.
Since he was a child, Bizilia had “an inquisitive spirit and explorer’s adventurousness that expressed itself in a fondness for animals, open spaces, and, later in life, aerial sports,” according to his obituary.
Bizilia was an experienced skydiver who made thousands of jumps for both fun and work as a tandem guide at jump zones in Alabama, Florida and Utah.
“He was a deeply principled young man, with a keen sense of right and wrong, a devotion to those he loved, and a stubbornness that was both admirable and at times, maddening,” according to his obituary. “Tough on the outside and fearless in the extreme, Jonny was a kind, tenderhearted soul who was moved easily to tears.”
Skydive Alabama could not immediately be reached for comment on Bizilia’s death.
An uncle posted a photo on social media of Bizilia — whom he referred to as his “Jonny Boy” — as a child being hoisted up into the air by his uncle carrying him with one hand.
“He seems quite calm, even happy, up there at high altitude. And he seems to trust that I’ll not let him fall,” the uncle wrote. “He was never afraid of heights.”
Bizilia “was so incredibly humble, tender, and loving,” added one of Bizilia’s six siblings.
His obituary said the tributes posted to the skydiver on social media “show the wide reach and exuberant energy of his life and the affection in which he was held.”