Adelir Antônio De Carli: The Priest Who Perished After Being Carried Away By Party Balloons
Renita Pelissari/Agencia O Globo via Associated Press Along with being a priest, Adelir Antônio de Carli was also reportedly an experienced skydiver.
On April 20, 2008, a 41-year-old Roman Catholic priest named Adelir Antônio de Carli donned a helmet, a thermal flight suit, and a parachute. Amid cheers from a crowd, he then strapped 1,000 helium-filled party balloons to himself and ascended into the sky over the port city of Paranagua in Brazil.
What could compel a man to fly thousands of feet into the air, carried only by balloons? As it turns out, charity — and a desire to break a world record.
De Carli had been trying to raise money to fund the building of a “spiritual rest stop” for truckers driving along the highway in Paranagua, CBS reported. To attract attention for the cause, he was attempting to break the record for the longest time in-flight with party balloons. (At the time, it was 19 hours.)
But although the priest was an experienced skydiver with extensive survival and wilderness training — and he had also brought a GPS device and radio with him so that he could report his status and location to the Brazilian Navy and air traffic control — his journey would lead to his terrible demise.
He was reported missing just eight hours after he took off. And two days after he vanished, the cluster of balloons was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean near Santa Catarina. De Carli was not with them.
For nearly three months, there was no sign of the priest.
Then, in July of that year, tugboat workers just off the southeastern coast of Brazil came across a body floating in the water near the city of Macae. When they brought it to shore, authorities believed that it belonged to de Carli.
DNA tests later confirmed it to be true.
Much of de Carli’s final moments remain a mystery. However, he reportedly called friends on his mobile phone just before he vanished to say that he was about to crash into the ocean. If he did indeed crash, it’s possible that he died on impact, or that he drowned after hitting the water. Either way, there’s no question that his last few breaths were agonizing ones.
