Ballooning priest receives Darwin Award

Remember the Brazilian priest who died after his makeshift ballooning stunt ended in tragedy? Father Adelir Antonio de Carli has been posthumously honored for his misadventure, albeit for all the wrong reasons:

Sitting for more than 19 hours in a lawn chair is not a trivial matter, even in the comfort of your own backyard. The priest took numerous safety precautions, including wearing a survival suit, selecting a buoyant chair, and packing a satellite phone and a GPS. However, the late Adelir Antonio made a fatal mistake.

He did not know how to use the GPS.

The winds changed, as winds do, and he was blown inexorably toward open sea.

De Carli’s voyage was well-intentioned yet his error earned him the name of “balloon buffoon” by one daily. (Compare that to the second place “recipient”: an Italian whose car was stuck on train tracks and who, in desperation, ran towards the train).

(Hat tip: Neatorama).

Image- Montreal Gazette (Adelir Antonio de Carli flying in his makeshift balloon contraption hours before his fatal crash in April 2008).
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Darwin Awards, Neatorama, Metro.co.uk, The Sun