Rescuers Search for Missing Brazil Priest Carried Aloft by Party Balloons

SAO PAULO, Brazil —  Rescuers reached a cluster of brightly colored helium party balloons floating in the ocean off Brazil's coast Tuesday but did not find the Roman Catholic priest who had been using them in a bid to set a flight record.

Rev. Adelir Antonio di Carli remained missing after lifting off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday strapped to hundreds of helium-filled balloons in a bid to break a record for the longest time in-flight using party balloons. He was wearing a helmet, aluminum thermal flight suit, water proof coveralls and parachute.

He planned to use the money raised in his attempt to break the 19-hour record to fund a "spiritual" rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, home to Brazil's largest grain port.
Di Carli was reported missing about eight hours after taking off when he lost contact with port authority officials.

The cluster of yellow, orange, pink and white balloons was seen Tuesday night, floating intact in the sea off Brazil's southern Santa Catarina state near di Carli's last contact point, according to a photograph posted on Sao Paulo's UOL news Web site.

Authorities reached the cluster of balloons late Tuesday but the priest was not there, Globo TV said.

"Given his physical condition and the equipment he was carrying, I would say there is an 80 percent chance that he is still alive," said Johnny Coelho, commander of the Penha Fire Department, which is searching for the priest.

Di Carli, who has taken jungle survival and mountain climbing courses, was carrying enough drinking water and cereal bars to stay alive for at least five days, Coelho said, suggesting the priest may be adrift in the ocean or resting on a beach or forest-covered mountain along the coast.

The priest, an experienced skydiver, also had a GPS device, satellite phone and buoyant chair with him, Coelho said.

"He last used the phone and GPS on Sunday at 8:45 p.m. to let the Navy know his location," Coelho said. "We haven't heard from him since."

The priest embarked on a similar adventure on Jan. 13, when he used 600 balloons to carry him on a four-hour, 17,390 foot-high voyage from the town of Ampere to neighboring Argentina, where he landed safely.

这个哥们儿看起来挂了~~~~

真惨啊，他就有5天的水和些能量 bar，机会不那么乐观呀~~~

SAO PAULO, Brazil —  Hopes for finding a priest who disappeared after soaring into the air with about a thousand colorful balloons are growing slimmer, rescue officials said Wednesday.

Roman Catholic Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli has been missing since Sunday, when he lifted off from the port city of Paranagua wearing a helmet, an aluminum thermal flight suit, waterproof coveralls and a parachute. He was seeking to break a record for the longest time in-flight with helium-filled party balloons.

Rescuers in boats, planes and helicopters continued to search off Brazil's southern coast, near where a cluster of yellow, orange, pink and white balloons was found floating in the Atlantic close to where de Carli was when he last made contact.

"It is getting harder to hold on to our optimism," said Johnny Coelho, commander of the Penha Fire Department, which is searching for the priest. "The possibilities of finding him alive are beginning to get smaller and smaller as each day passes."

Coelho said some 30 fire department rescue workers were also scouring the "thick, almost impenetrable forests" covering several 1,300-foot (400-meter) mountains along the coast.

But de Carli's parishioners remained optimistic.

"We are more confident than ever they will find him alive," Sao Cristovao parish treasurer Denise Gallas said. "Hope is always the last thing to die."

A paragliding instructor who taught de Carli three years ago called the priest's disappearance a "tragedy foretold."

Marcio Andre Lichtnow described the 41-year-old priest as a "headstrong, anxious individual who was always in a rush to get things done."

"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 said by telephone. "So what happened comes as no big surprise."

Lichtnow also 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."

De Carli hoped to break a 19-hour flight record and raise money for a "spiritual" rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua.

Searchers reached the floating balloons late Tuesday but there was no sign of the priest, the Air Force said on its Web site.

De Carli, who has taken jungle survival and mountain climbing courses, was carrying enough drinking water and cereal bars to stay alive for at least five days, according to Coelho. An experienced skydiver, he also had a GPS device, a satellite phone and a buoyant chair with him.

The priest embarked on a similar adventure on Jan. 13, when he used 600 balloons to carry him on a four-hour, 5,300-meter-high (17,390-foot-high) voyage from the town of Ampere to neighboring Argentina, where he landed safely.

有个巴西神父，想打破一项用气球在空中的漂浮记录，1，000个氢气球把他带上天（礼拜天），然后，不见了……