Missing Balloon-Propelled Priest Feared Dead; Brazilian Navy Calls Off Search
Published on May 1, 2008 by spencer · 5 Comments
As we reported last week, a Brazilian priest has gone missing after attempting to raise money by breaking a world record for the longest amount of time suspended in the air by party balloons. The money was to be used to build a truck stop rest area / church. Father Adelir Antonio de Carli, missing since April 20, is now feared dead. After 135 hours the Brazilian Navy called off the search, although private fishermen are continuing to look for the missing reverend.
From the Associated Press:
Brazil navy ends search for missing balloonist priest
By STAN LEHMAN – 3 days ago
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — 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.
The Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli has been missing since April 20, shortly after he lifted off from the southern port city of Paranagua strapped to 1,000 helium-filled balloons.
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.
She said several private fishing boats were still looking for the Roman Catholic priest, but said chances of finding de Carli alive in the ocean are “very remote.”
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.
Fire department rescue teams continued looking for the 41-year-old priest in densely forested coastal mountains, said Deputy Fire Commander Paulo Eduardo Neves.
The priest had been trying to raise money to build a rest stop and worship center for truckers.
Even though our blogging staff consists mainly of pseudo-religious non-denominational Christians, pagans and Jews, we are sending our prayers anyway. That’s the kind of priest we want in this world – the fearless, adventurous and dirigible kind.
Tags: airship, balloon, balloons, brazil, call off, dead, dirigible, father, Father Adelir Antonio de Carli, feared, missing priest, Navy, search, searching
Readers Comments (5)
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Brazil should send the catholic church the bill for the whole cost of the search effort
I was wondering why someone didn’t track him in a plane or something….I don’t know enough about this and I don’t know how far up the priest could get….
so sad
I will never forget Father Adelir Antonio de Carli. He burst into the mass consciousness as he died, via YouTube clips of his ascent into the sky, carried by multi coloured helium balloons. He said Mass before he took off and as he left the ground he gave more blessings. It was a flight of fancy – of someone trying to raise the huge amount of money to finance a rest stop for truckies in the parish in which he served – a ministering. He came across as a child-man in his delight in ballooning and perhaps excessive trust that the saints (notably St Christopher painted on a large inner panel of his flying contraption) would make up for his short-fall in technical know-how.
In the days after he went aloft and subsequently missing, he became a phenomenon on the web. The colour (and to many foolhardiness) of his enterprise led to an outburst of creativity and levity – clips of all kinds – some transforming him into a super-hero – capable of being in many places at once – always suspended from the multicoloured globes and visiting many different places on the earth and out into space. We waved as he passed by our windows. Some put his exploits to music – the big Hawaiian man singing “Somewhere Over Rainbow” while he played his ukelele being one of the most magical.
Then, a confetti of little pieces of balloon fabric began to show up on the coast. They searched everywhere for him, on sea and land till they could look no longer. Weeks later, what the fish had left of his body was found floating in the sea. He was identified and taken back to the grief stricken people of his parish where they had prayed non stop for him. He was well-loved. A thin veil was thrown over his coffin. I don’t know why. I am not Brazilian. They prayed more, then they all piled into buses to follow the cortege the many hours drive to his home town.
Through the gate of an old cemetry, through an avenue of tall shade giving trees they processed. At the front was a banner of Padre Adelir – with a picture of him in purple vestments as he would have appeared during the liturgy. They brought him to a mausoleum. It was a place near where he had living relatives that they might visit.
In his dying he became famous. He made … as some might say … “a good death of it”.
I have posted here as today, April 20, is the anniversary of the day he went missing and because of the tone of this:
“Even though our blogging staff consists mainly of pseudo-religious non-denominational Christians, pagans and Jews, we are sending our prayers anyway. That’s the kind of priest we want in this world – the fearless, adventurous and dirigible kind”.
Those are beautiful words. He so was the kind of priest we need in this world. In addition to the words of the blogging staff, may I add the words one year later – imaginative and creative and joyful, to “fearless, adventurous and dirigible” – ‘cos he still floats through our minds in fond memory.
Beautiful sentiment Sio, thank you for sharing that.
Hello Spencer and all. Another anniversary (and a bit).
Balloon sea cluster
Father Adelir’s mind spawn
Flying then floating