A Roman Catholic priest who used 1,000 helium balloons to try to break a flying record has gone missing off the southern coast of Brazil.Rev Adelir de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday, equipped with a parachute, thermal suit, satellite phone and a GPS device.A sea and air rescue operation is under way after he lost contact with port authority officials late on Sunday.He wanted to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons.As well as his GPS and satellite phone, Rev Carli was equipped with a buoyant chair. He is also an experienced skydiver.In a phone interview with Brazilian TV channel Globo on Sunday, he said he was having difficulty operating his GPS device, and was "very cold, but fine".He was said to have reached an altitude of 20,000ft (6,000m), then descended to about 8,200ft (2,500m) for his planned flight to the city of Dourados.But he was blown off course by winds and when last contacted was floating several miles off the coast.Before losing contact, he said he had to land in the sea as he was "losing weight".
