In April 2008, Father Adelir Antônio de Carli set out on a fundraising mission unlike anything most people had ever seen. The Brazilian Catholic priest climbed into a simple chair attached to around 1,000 helium-filled party balloons, hoping to attract attention and raise money for a spiritual rest centre for truck drivers in the port city of Paranaguá. Months of planning and specialist training had gone into the attempt, and the journey was expected to last nearly 20 hours. He carried basic survival equipment, a GPS device and communication tools intended to help him navigate safely throughout the ambitious aerial voyage. For a while, everything appeared to be going according to plan. Then the wind changed. Carried away from his intended route and out over the Atlantic Ocean, the extraordinary charity flight soon became one of Brazil's most unforgettable real-life tragedies.
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