Priest who tied himself to 1,000 balloons suffered a horrible fate trying to raise money

A Brazilian priest met a tragic end after undertaking a novel way to raise money for charity.

Father Adelir Antonio de Carli had wanted to raise money for a chapel for truckers in his highway hometown.

To do this, he came up with an unusual activity which was definitely a cut above doing a sponsored run.

The priest attempted an extraordinary feat which could have come straight out of Pixar animated adventure movie Up.

de Carli made an attempt to break the record for floating using helium balloons for the longest time, which stood at 19 hours.

To do this he tied himself to 1,000 helium balloons, and planned to float out over the ocean.

While it might seem like a far-fetched feat to attempt, the priest was no stranger to sports in the sky. He was an experienced skydiver, and didn't set off in just a cassock.

When the Roman Catholic priest set off on April 20, 2008, he was clad in a helmet, waterproof coverall, and an aluminium thermal flight suit.

He also had a parachute, a GPS tracker and a radio to communicate with air traffic control about his position.

YouTube / @catholicnewsagency

Not only that, but de Carli also had training in wilderness skills and survival, should he become stranded.

So it's fair to say he wasn't approaching this unprepared - especially seeing as this was his second attempt at the feat.

Earlier the same year he had undertaken a four-hour-long trip reaching an altitude of 17,390 feet.

This trip saw him take off from the town of Ampere before landing safely in Argentina.

But despite the radio and GPS tracker, on his second attempt, the 41-year-old disappeared around eight hours after taking off.

Search and rescue parties including planes, helicopters, and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to search for the missing priest.

Two days after he had taken off, several multicolored balloons were spotted in the sea off Brazil's southeast coast.

Some months later, a body was found in the search, and following DNA testing, it was confirmed to be the missing priest.

YouTube / @catholicnewsagency

Macae’s chief of police, Daniel Bandeira, said at the time: “We were almost certain that it was the priest due to various elements, such as the clothes and material used in the balloon trip.

“The DNA only confirmed our suspicions.”

His brother Moacir de Carli said: "Now we can have a respectable burial service."

While it's not clear exactly what went wrong, reports have suggested that de Carli had been struggling to work his GPS device, and that he had felt 'very cold but fine'.

He reportedly reached an altitude of 20,000ft, and had been on course to begin descending to around 8,200ft for the planned flight to Dourados.

It's possible that he was blown off course by winds. Before he lost contact, de Carli reportedly said he was 'losing height'.

His body was discovered by chance by tugboat workers.