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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
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Men and Balloons
What is it with men who want to fly under balloons? I don't mean hot air balloons, I mean toy balloons. This one's a priest -- he just wanted to get closer to God, I guess. From True's 27 April 2008 edition:
Free Weird Newsletter
Paging Sister Bertrille
People in Paranagua, Parana, Brazil, watched as a Roman Catholic Priest ascended toward heaven. No, really: Fr. Adelir Antonio de Carli filled 1,000 balloons with helium and, dressed in a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute, and carrying a GPS receiver and a satellite phone, headed skyward in an attempt to break the 19-hour record for staying aloft with party balloons. He was declared missing eight hours later when he failed to check in by phone, and was judged to be off course -- and 30 miles out to sea. A search found some of the balloons, but there has been no sign of the 41-year-old flying priest. "We are absolutely confident he will be found alive and well, floating somewhere in the ocean," said a spokeswoman for his parish. But the London Telegraph newspaper reported that "hopes are fading" for the priest. "The priest's death would make him an immediate contender for the annual Darwin Award," the paper said, "named honour of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, and 'commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.'" (AP, London Telegraph) ...A hell of a thing to say about a guy who pledged celibacy.
Here's his launch:
Fr. Adelir Antonio de Carli launches on his quest to set a new record. It ended badly. (Photo released by the Brazilian UOL News web site.) |
Does this story remind you of something? That would probably be Larry Walters. I used to get "submissions" of his story all the time -- everyone who got it by e-mail thought it happened "yesterday", but indeed it didn't.
The man who went flying in his lawn chair over Los Angeles is real -- and I remember when it happened. Yesterday? Heck no: it was July 2, 1982. Of course, the story went around on the Internet like it was recent -- and most of the versions are highly ...well... inflated with ridiculous, false details.
He did not, for instance, take a six-pack (or case) of beer on his flight, but rather a bottle of soda pop -- as well as a portable CB radio, a parachute, and a pellet gun. His launch of "Inspiration I" -- an aluminum patio chair with 42 helium-filled weather balloons attached -- was assisted by two friends. His resulting 16,000-foot altitude was confirmed by two airline pilots, who reported him to the FAA (the agency fined him $1,500).
Most versions of the story say he was "rescued" after he drifted out to sea by a helicopter -- a detail which is pretty dang unlikely, when you think about it. In real life, the ending was amazing enough without embellishment: he shot out a few of his balloons with the pellet gun and landed softly -- though the balloons draped over a power line in Long Beach, blacking out the neighborhood for 20 minutes. Amazingly, he wasn't killed.
He went on to appear on The Tonight Show and Late Night With David Letterman, which he said was "the most fun I've ever had." But Walters committed suicide on October 6, 1993, by shooting himself in the heart -- he was unable to cope with the all-too-brief interest in his story. He was 44.
Of course, others have followed in Larry's ...uh... airy footsteps and pulled similar stunts. But Larry is the most famous -- there's even a movie about him in development. We'll see if the priest beats him on the fame front.
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Posted by Don in Nawlins on May 4, 2008:
As quite a few readers will know, the 19-hour record stands because both "party" and "weather" balloons lose helium as soon as they're filled, and provide lift by expanding as they gain elevation. The lifespan of weather balloons is about 10-24 hours (usually because they expand too much). Regular balloons lose their helium through the latex in under a day, although more expensive aluminum/nylon ones will hold gas for up to a week, with a substantial reduction in lifting power. General info on lift :
http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/lift.html
Posted by Ed, Salem MA on May 6, 2008:
There are a few links with good info on toy, party, or cluster ballooning, the best is http://www.clusterballoon.org
No mention of a 19 hour record anywhere. This appears to be a factoid, although it is mentioned in every single report of the story that I have seen. That in itself is an additional curiosity.
The duration record for gas balloons designed for flight is much longer than 19 hours.
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As I noted, I looked for more info and found none. The way Associated Press (one of the sources for my story) put it was that the priest "was seeking to break the 19-hour record for the longest time in-flight with party balloons." In a different story, the AP said it was "19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons", which is obviously incorrect, and sloppy, reporting. My other source (London Telegraph) apparently tried to research it and, when they didn't find any authoritative source for the claim, omitted the reference altogether. -rc
Posted by Ed, Salem MA on May 6, 2008:
The reason every story I saw included 19 hours is because I included that in my Google search criteria. Apologies for that oversight. Gives new meaning to Q.E.D. Nevertheless, there are over ten thousand returns. In the first twenty or so, the majority reference the supposed record to be for helium (not party) balloons, compounding the error.
The story is already rich with levels of humor (celibacy/death/Darwin/removal from the gene pool). I originally wrote with the intent to add another level, the nature of the record to be broken. If it turns out to be undocumented (looking that way), all the more stranger than fiction.
Kudos to rc for acknowledging the unresearched record; it was not my intent to question his work. Same goes for my unintentional google sleight of hand.
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I didn't feel questioned or second-guessed at all. I can only rely on my sources, and work to use "reliable" sources, dropping those that have less than stellar records. So I'm confident in my work (with the ever-present caveat noted on my sources page), and never mind people checking into things. -rc