Balloon death priest wins Darwin Award 2008
A priest who died after floating out to sea while holding 1,000 helium-filled party balloons has picked up a posthumous award for his stupidity.
Reverend Adelir Antonio di Carli is the 2008 winner of the Darwin Award - which each year commemorates people who took themselves out of the gene pool by dying in a stupid fashion.
The Catholic priest had been trying to set a 19-hour world record for clustered balloon flight when winds scooped him up and carried him out to sea.
Despite taking a survival suit, selecting a buoyant chair, and packing a satellite phone and a GPS the priest died because he didn't know how to work his GPS and tell rescuers where he was.
The moral of the story, don't let God be your guide if you already have a GPS.
It wasn't until three months later his body was discovered off the coast of Brazil.
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