A Roman Catholic priest by the name of Adelir Antonio de Carli wanted to build a spiritual rest stop for truckers on the highway near the big shipping port of Paranaguá in Brazil. de Carli complained that existing truck stops along the highway tempted truck drivers with harmful activities such as consuming alcoholic beverages and watching undressed dancing girls.
To raise money for this spiritual rest stop, the priest decided to attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the longest time ever spent in the air using just party balloons. The current record is 19 hours, and he wanted to break that.
Here is a photo of the priest being interviewed by the media before taking off last Sunday. You can see some of the party balloons being prepared in the background:
Alas, things did not go well at all for the priest. He used a huge number of balloons, hoping that having so many would help him break the record. However, the balloons had so much lift in them, that he quickly went up high into the atmosphere. He was followed for a brief period, but then disappeared into the clouds. Here is the last photo that was taken of him and all of his balloons as he entered the clouds:
There was no sign of the priest anywhere for two days. But then on Tuesday, some of the balloons that were part of his attempt were located, floating far out in the Atlantic Ocean.
Here is a photo taken of the balloons right after they were found at sea:
There is no trace of the priest to be found anywhere. It is feared that he has perished in his attempt to raise money to benefit the long haul truck drivers.
Here is a news report from the Associated Press about the tragedy:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/brazil_flying_priestA local flight instructor said that he had warned the priest that upper winds in the area could carry him clear across the ocean to South Africa. However, the Priest ignored his warnings.
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