Brazil priest flying party balloons lost at sea.

"Irrational beliefs ultimately lead to irrational acts."
-- Larry Dighera


http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...28192120080422
Brazil priest flying party balloons lost at sea
Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:35pm EDT

Photo
Video

Brazilian priest lost at sea

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian priest is missing after he drifted
out to sea while trying to set a record for a flight using
helium-filled party balloons, authorities said on Tuesday.

Father Adelir Antonio de Carli began his flight suspended in a
harness-like seat from 1,000 balloons of various colors on Sunday in
the southern port of Paranagua. He had intended to fly 20 hours due
west but unexpected winds carried the 42-year-old Roman Catholic
priest out over the south Atlantic on a southeasterly course.
....

"We found bits of balloons all along the coast," said Joao dos Santos
Junior, deputy fire commander in the coastal town of Sao Francisco do
Sul.

De Carli's seat was lined with air-tight pockets that can be pumped up
and there are several islands in the region that he could have washed
up on, dos Santos said.
....




http://content.usatoday.com/communit...20d e%20Carli

http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstor...52234299_x.htm
Brazil navy ends search for missing balloonist priest

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazil's navy has dropped its search for a priest
who vanished more than a week ago while floating over the Atlantic
with a cluster of party balloons, a spokeswoman said Monday.
....
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Catia Sandri said the hunt, conducted with one
helicopter and two boats, was called off over the weekend because no
sign of the priest was found after 135 hours of searching.
....

The air force ended its four-day search for the priest on Thursday
after its planes covered more than 1,900 square miles of land and sea.
....

The priest had been trying to raise money to build a rest stop and
worship center for truckers.




http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,5504396.photo

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080423/..._flying_priest
The cleric's former flight teacher called his disappearance a "tragedy
foretold."

Paragliding instructor Marcio Andre Lichtnow, who gave courses to the
Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli three years ago, described him as a
"headstrong, anxious individual who was always in a rush."

"After two or three months, I asked him to abandon the course because
of these personality traits, which are not the ideal profile for a
paraglider," Lichtnow told The Associated Press by telephone. "So what
happened comes as no big surprise."
....
The priest hoped his flight would help raise money for a center where
truck drivers could stop "to rest and receive the gospel," said Denise
Gallas, treasurer at his Sao Cristovao parish.

Lichtnow said de Carli phoned him days before liftoff.

"I told him that the winds would carry him all the way to South
Africa," Lichtnow said. "He said he had studied everything very
carefully and that he would go ahead. I honestly thought he was
joking."




http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstor...9520-20392816/
24/04/2008

Priest Adelir de Carli floats off on ballons Priest floats off on
ballons (Pic:Reuters)

A cluster of balloons were found floating in the ocean yesterday - but
with no sign of the missing priest who was strapped to them for a
charity flight.

They were found off Florianopolis, southern Brazil, near where Rev
Adelir Antonio de Carli was last heard of on Sunday night. The
churchman, 41, an experienced skydiver, had undergone survival
training and took five days of supplies - leading rescuers to remain
confident he will be found safe.




http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/...742887409.html
Some American adventurers have used helium balloons to emulate Larry
Walters - who in 1982 rose three miles above Los Angeles in a lawn
chair lifted by balloons.

A video of Carli posted on the G1 website of Globo TV showed the
smiling 41-year-old priest slipping into a flight suit, being strapped
to a seat attached to a huge column green, red, white and yellow
balloons, and soaring into the air to the cheers of a crowd.

According to Gallas, the priest soared to an altitude of 6,000 metres
then descended to about 2,500 metres for his planned flight to the
city of Dourados, 750km north-west of his parish.

But winds pushed him in another direction, and Carli was some 50km off
the coast when he last contacted Paranagua's port authority, Gallas
said.