One of the four passengers of a hot air balloon that was killed when it crashed in Arizona had texted his girlfriend to say, “I love you, goodbye” – who she only saw after landing from a skydive from the balloon, unaware of his tragic fate.
Chayton Wiescholek, 28, of Union City, Michigan, was one of 13 people aboard the balloon on Sunday — along with his girlfriend, Kinsey Taylor, among eight skydivers who jumped before any sign of trouble, Fox 17 reported.
Taylor only realized something had happened when she landed and saw the heartbreaking message, Wiescholek’s parents revealed.
“He looked at his phone and received a message from my son. It said, ‘I love you.’ He knew he was going to die,” mother Rhonda Wiescholek told Fox 17.
“Chayton texted Kinsey on the way down and said it’s not good, ‘I love you, goodbye,’ and signed it. So his last thoughts were with his girlfriend,” Wiescholek’s father, Gary, told the outlet.
The panicked girlfriend immediately tried to call her lover after he landed safely.
Hot air balloon victim Chayton Wiescholek sent his girlfriend, Kinsey Taylor, a heartbreaking last message, “I love you, goodbye,” before he died along with three others. Facebook / Chayton Wiescholek
“Someone else answered his phone and said, ‘This is not good, you need to be here now,'” dad Gary told KTVU about his son, who told his parents he planned to marry Taylor.
“He took off his parachute cord and he ran two miles to get it and the officers wouldn’t let him get close to it.”
The balloon crashed about 7:50 a.m. Sunday in a desert area in Eloy, a small town about 65 miles northwest of Phoenix known as the “skydiving capital of the world.”
Four people were killed and one seriously injured Sunday in a hot air balloon crash in Arizona, police said. KTVU
In addition to Wiescholek, Kaitlynn Bartrom, 28, of Andrews, Indiana; Atahan Kiliccote, 24, of Cupertino, California; and pilot Cornelius Van Der Walt, 37, from Eloy and originally from Namibia, died in the disaster.
Valerie Stutterheim, 23, of Scottsdale, survived but remains hospitalized.
Rhonda Wiescholek was on the first flight to Arizona when she heard about the tragedy, she said.
Chayton Wiescholek plans to marry Kinsey Taylor. Facebook / Chayton Wiescholek Taylor had jumped from the balloon before the tragic accident. Facebook / Chayton Wiescholek
“I’m staying here until I can bring my son home. I’m not going without him,” he told Arizona Family.
She said her son lives with Taylor and their cat in Union City, Michigan, about two hours west of Detroit. They were vacationing in Arizona at the time of the crash.
“There’s not much else you can say. You are just broken,” the heartbroken mother told the outlet. “He just went up in the balloon to be with her and all the skydivers had jumped out of the balloon and then something went wrong and we still don’t know what.”
“Chayton’s last thoughts were with his girlfriend,” according to his father. Facebook / Chayton Wiescholek
In the midst of grief, Rhonda Wiescholek finds solace.
“Knowing that he is happy, yes. Because that’s all I’ve ever asked of my children is that I want you to be happy and he to be happy with her. So, I know he’s happy,” he told Arizona Family.
In a GoFundMe page, the family said they “want to continue to remember Chayton, as the life of the party, adventure seeker, and steady voice.
“For the most part, when we sit back and reminisce about our fondest memories with Chayton, we smile because that’s what he did, lighting everything and everyone up with him,” they added.
Kaitlynn “Katie” Bartrom, 28, pilot Cornelius Van Der Walt, 37, and Atahan Kiliccote, 24, were also killed in the crash.
Skydivers Tanya Toliver and David Boone say they have flown in pilot Van Der Walt’s cursed balloon.
“That balloon was my first time doing a hot air balloon ride and skydiving and we’ve jumped on that balloon many times,” Toliver told ABC 15.
“It surprised me. Just because, you know, Cornelius is always careful. He was very aware of what he was doing. He’s been doing it for a long, long time and he’s only gotten better with time,” Boone told the outlet.
“He was just a very good balloon pilot. It’s not like he’s inexperienced at dropping skydivers. There must be [a] different ways to do it. So he knows what he’s doing,” he added.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board said the balloon crashed after an unspecified problem with its envelope, according to ABC 15.
The agency stated that no mechanical problems were found during the initial inspection of the balloon, and everything appeared to be intact inside the basket.
The accident is still under investigation.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
