Ballooning Priest Disappears
Brazillian Man Raising Money For Cause Floats Away On Ballooon Chair
A Catholic priest from Brazil disappeared on April 20th after floating away on hundreds of balloons. Rescue efforts are growing dim in hopes of finding him.
On Sunday, April 20th, 41-year-old Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli, a Roman Catholic priest from Brazil took off in a chair attached to hundreds of helium balloons. No one has seen or heard from him since. He disappeared from Paranagua, off the southern coast of Brazil while attempting to break a record for the longest time in flight with helium-filled balloons.
Goal of the Mission
De Carli’s mission was to break the 19-hour long flight record of floating in the air attached with helium balloons. The feat was being done to raise money for a spiritual rest stop for truckers in the city. The priest was equipped with a helmet, an aluminum thermal flight suit, waterproof coveralls and a parachute. Rescue efforts are growing less optimistic as each day passes to find de Carli.
Rescue Efforts and Holding Out Hope
A team of 30 fire department rescue workers are searching through dense forests and 1,000 foot mountains near the Atlantic Ocean where a group of yellow, orange, pink and white balloons were found floating in the water on Tuesday, two days after he disappeared. Boats, planes and helicopters are helping to cover ground.
Parishioners are the most optimistic members of those anxiously waiting to find him alive. However, Marcio Andre Lichtnow, de Carli’s paragliding instructor of three years had warned de Carli that he was too headstrong and anxious to be a successful paraglider.
However, de Carli is well trained in survival techniques. He has taken several jungle surviving courses, sky diving lessons and is also a trained mountain climber. He was also given enough drinking water and cereal bars to last him at least five days as well as a GPS device, satellite phone and buoyant chair.
The Art of Cluster Ballooning
This was not de Carli’s first experience with helium balloon flight. Earlier this year, on January 13th, he successfully completed a four hour flight from Ampere to Argentina using 600 balloons. During his flight, he traveled as high as 17,390 feet. De Carli is not the only person to try this method of flight either.
Known as cluster ballooning, the most famous flight before now was said to have taken place in 1982 when citizen Larry Walters attached 42 helium weather balloons to a lawn chair which lifted him up 16,000 feet. Luckily, he survived the voyage.
Since then, cluster ballooning has become a sort of extreme sport, often with professionals trained in hot air balloon operation and even certified pilot lessons. In cluster ballooning, the operator releases ballast to ascend into the air and bursting balloons to descend from a single person harness known as a cloudhopper. There are currently only about six or so such pilots throughout the world.
