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Going, going, gone
I think he continued straight up to heaven. 
SAO PAULO, Brazil - A Roman Catholic priest is missing after floating away with hundreds of helium party balloons off the southern coast of Brazil.
Rescuers in helicopters and small fishing boats are searching off the coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found. The priest lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, a thermal suit and a parachute.
He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials.
A spokeswoman says the priest is an experienced skydiver and his supporters are certain he will be found alive and unhurt.
The priest was trying to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons.
He was using the stunt to raise money for a spiritual rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil's second-largest port for agricultural products.
A video posted on the G1 website of Globo TV shows the smiling 41-year-old priest - Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli - slipping into a flight suit and being strapped to a seat attached to a huge column of green, red, white and yellow balloons.
He then soars into the air to the cheers of a crowd.
Denise Gallas, the treasurer of Carli's Sao Cristovao parish, said by telephone that the priest soared to an altitude of 6,000 metres then descended to about 2,500 metres for his planned flight to the city of Dourados, 750 kilometres northwest of his parish.
But winds pushed him in another direction, and Carli was some 50 kilometres off the coast when he last contacted Paranagua's port authority, Gallas said.
Carli had a GPS device, a satellite phone, a buoyant chair and is an experienced skydiver, Gallas said.
"We are absolutely confident he will be found alive and well, floating somewhere in the ocean," she said.
"He knew what he was doing and was fully prepared for any kind of mishap."
Some adventurers have used helium balloons to emulate Larry Walters, who in 1982 rose about five kilometres above Los Angeles in a lawn chair lifted by balloons.
Rescuers in helicopters and small fishing boats are searching off the coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found. The priest lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, a thermal suit and a parachute.
He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials.
A spokeswoman says the priest is an experienced skydiver and his supporters are certain he will be found alive and unhurt.
The priest was trying to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons.
He was using the stunt to raise money for a spiritual rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil's second-largest port for agricultural products.
A video posted on the G1 website of Globo TV shows the smiling 41-year-old priest - Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli - slipping into a flight suit and being strapped to a seat attached to a huge column of green, red, white and yellow balloons.
He then soars into the air to the cheers of a crowd.
Denise Gallas, the treasurer of Carli's Sao Cristovao parish, said by telephone that the priest soared to an altitude of 6,000 metres then descended to about 2,500 metres for his planned flight to the city of Dourados, 750 kilometres northwest of his parish.
But winds pushed him in another direction, and Carli was some 50 kilometres off the coast when he last contacted Paranagua's port authority, Gallas said.
Carli had a GPS device, a satellite phone, a buoyant chair and is an experienced skydiver, Gallas said.
"We are absolutely confident he will be found alive and well, floating somewhere in the ocean," she said.
"He knew what he was doing and was fully prepared for any kind of mishap."
Some adventurers have used helium balloons to emulate Larry Walters, who in 1982 rose about five kilometres above Los Angeles in a lawn chair lifted by balloons.
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