Roman Catholic priest Father Antonio di Carli has gone missing after floating away today off the southern coast of Brazil.

Tethered to hundreds of helium party balloons, Father di Carli of Brazil lifted off from the port city of Paranagua wearing a helmet, thermal suit, and a parachute. He also carried a GPS device, satellite phone, and buoyant chair. Rescue helicopters and small boats are searching the waters off the coast of Santa Catarina state where pieces of balloons were found.

Father di Carli was reported missing after he failed to make contact with port authorities eight hours after party balloon lift off. The priest had wanted to break a previous 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons to raise money for a “spiritual rest stop for truckers”.

The missing priest had initially soared to an altitude of 20,000 ft. then descended to 8200 ft, when winds pushed him in the wrong direction, out over the water. He was purportedly 30 miles offshore when last heard from.

I’m starting my descent at 16,000 feet and I just passed a guy in a lawn chair with a gun.
(Airline pilot to control tower)

Those Amazing Young Men and Their Flying Balloons

While Father di Carli reached an altitude of 20,000 ft. it was another man back in 1982 who soared to an altitude of 16,000 ft., or three miles, in a lawn chair carried by 45 weather balloons along with sandwiches, a six-pack of beer, and a pellet gun.

Larry Walters, or Lawnchair Larry, a truck driver living in North Hollywood, Ca., dreamed of flying. In order to make his dream come true, Walters went to his local Army-Navy store and purchased 35 eight ft. weather balloons to float above his back yard at around 30 feet. Instead of gently floating to a safe height Walters ended up at 16,000 feet for more than 14 hours. After he drifted into the LAX corridor two passing passenger jet pilots spotted Larry and reported that they had just seen a man floating in a lawn chair with a gun.

Larry lost his eye glasses on take off and when he attempted to shoot out some of the balloons he dropped his gun. Larry, who dubbed his chair “Inspiration I”, drifted out toward Long Beach where he eventually descended and ended up entangled in a power line, knocking out service to portions of Long Beach. Purportedly Larry was able to get free and climb out of his chair. Larry later told the press, “A man just can’t sit around”.

Larry became an instant celebrity while the FAA fined him $4,000 for operating a craft without airworthiness certificate, creating a collision danger, entering an airport zone without radio contact and endangering life and property. Larry was able to get the FAA to lower the fine to $1000.

Sadly, Larry lost his zest for life in 1993. He committed suicide in the Angeles National Forest, a bullet to the heart.

In 2007, Kent Couch tethered himself to 105 large helium balloons in Bend, Oregon in order to fly to Idado. Couch, like Larry, brought along snacks, rode in a lawnchair but added a GPS devise and four plastic bags, each filled with five gallons of water to act as ballast. Couch managed to stay aloft nine hours but fell short of his destination landing in a cow pasture 193 miles from home.

World Record Holder of “Flying with the most toy balloons” Englishman Ian Ashpole and his 600 balloons. Ashpole reached an altitude of 11,000 ft. near Chatteris in Cambridgeshire, England.

Source – Larry Walters
Source – Lawnchair Larry, the man who soared to 16,000 ft attached to weather balloons
Source - LA Times – Priest Attached to party balloons vanishes
Source – Flight of the Balloonatic
Source - MSNBC – Man Floats 193 miles using chair, balloons
Source – Loony Ballonist Sets Record
Source - LATimes – Priest attached to party balloons vanishes in Brazil

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.