Priest faces tragic death after tying himself to 1,000 balloons
Priest Father Adelir Antonio de Carli thought only of charity when he tied himself to 1,000 balloons. Nobody expected the jester-like antic to be the reason he faced an early end.
In 2008, the Priest set out to raise money to build a chapel for truckers in his highway parish. The solution quickly came to him: 1,000 helium-filled balloons.
With a helmet, a thermal flight suit, waterproof clothing, and a singular parachute, the Priest began lift-off from Paranagua, in Brazil. He was barely bothered by the idea of an unruly flight, as he was a trained skydiver with other useful survival and wilderness skills under his belt.
The charitable Priest aimed to break the 19-hour world record for the longest time in flight with balloons. He had already completed the stunt in January of that year with 600 balloons, during which he spent four hours cruising 17,390 feet off the ground.
In April, he set off with a GPS tracker and a radio, which would at least allow the hopeful adventurer to talk to traffic control while he changed locations.
Eight hours into his journey, the priest completely disappeared.
Aircraft and rescue teams searched fruitlessly around the area he had vanished, to no avail. Two days later, a cluster of balloons was spotted floating in the ocean. The body was nowhere to be found.
It was only in July 2008 that his remains were found. Two tugboat crew members were working at sea when they came across the missing priest floating in the water.
As per The Mirror, Macae’s police chief, Daniel Bandeira, stated: “We were almost certain that it was the priest due to various elements, such as the clothes and material used in the balloon trip. The DNA only confirmed our suspicions.”
Reports later suggested that the priest had trouble working his GPS device, but he did manage to get a message through that he felt “very cold, but fine”. Things eventually took a turn for the worse.
The confirmation of his remains at least brought his family and friends peace of mind. His brother, Moacir de Carli, stated: “Now we can have a respectable burial service”.