One of the four hot air balloon passengers who died in a crash in Arizona texted his girlfriend, “I love you, goodbye,” but the words she saw were blown away by the heat. After landing from a skydiving balloon, unaware of the ball's tragic fate.
Cheyton Wieczorek, 28, of Union City, Michigan, was one of 13 people on the balloon Sunday and one of eight skydivers who jumped off before there were any signs of trouble. He was on a hot air balloon ride with his girlfriend, Kinsey Taylor. FOX17 reported.
Wiesholek's parents said they only realized something had happened when Taylor landed and saw the heartbreaking message.
“When she looked at her phone, she saw a message from her son. It said, 'I love you.' He knew he was going to die,” her mother, Rhonda Wiecholek, told FOX 17.
“Chayton messaged Kinsey on the way out and said this wasn't going to work out, and sent him a sign saying, 'I love you, goodbye.' So the last thing he was thinking about was his girlfriend,” Wiecolek said. His father, Gary, told the magazine.
The panicked girlfriend immediately tried to call her lover after landing safely.
“Another person answered the phone and said, 'This is not good, you need to get here now,'” said his father, Gary. told KTVU About the son who told his parents he was going to marry Taylor.
“She took off her parachute harness and ran two miles to get to him, but authorities wouldn't let her get to him.”
The balloon crashed around 7:50 a.m. Sunday in the desert area of Eloy, a small town about 105 miles northwest of Phoenix, known as the “skydiving capital of the world.”
In addition to Wiecholek, there is also Caitlin Bartrom, 28, of Andrews, Indiana. Atahan Kirikoto, 24 years old, lives in Cupertino, California. And pilot Cornelius van der Walt, 37, from Eloy, a native of Namibia, died in the disaster.
Valerie Stutterheim, 23, of Scottsdale, survived, but remains hospitalized.
Rhonda Wiecholek boarded the first flight to Arizona after hearing about the tragedy, she said.
“I'm here until I can bring my son home. I'm not leaving without him.” She told her family in Arizona..
She said her son lived with Taylor and her cats in Union City, Michigan, about two hours west of Detroit. They were vacationing in Arizona at the time of the accident.
“There's not much more to say than that. You just broke down,” the heartbroken mother told the outlet. “He just went on a balloon ride to be with his girlfriend and all the skydivers just jumped out of the balloon and something went wrong. We still don't know what happened.”
In the midst of her grief, Rhonda Wiecholek is finding peace.
“I knew he was happy, yeah. Because all I've ever asked for kids is I want you to be happy, and he was happy with her.” “So I know he was happy,” she told her family in Arizona.
On the GoFundMe page, the family said: “We would like to continue to remember Chayton as a lifer, a seeker of adventure, and a voice of reason.”
“Most people smile when they sit back and think about their fondest memories with Chayton, because that's what he did and with him brightened everything and everyone. Because of this,” they added.
Skydivers Tanya Tolliver and David Boone said they had ridden in pilot van der Walt's doomed balloon.
“That balloon was the first balloon I ever went skydiving in. We jumped in that balloon many times,” Tolliver said. told ABC15.
“That shocked me, because Cornelius is always so careful. He knows what he's doing very well. He's been doing it for a long time, but as time goes on, It’s gotten better,” Boone told the magazine.
“He was just a great balloon pilot. It's not like he didn't have experience dropping skydivers. He definitely did. [a] It's done differently. So he knew what he was doing,” he added.
According to ABC 15, National Transportation Safety Board officials said the balloon crashed due to an unknown problem with the envelope.
The agency said an initial inspection of the balloon found no mechanical problems and everything inside the basket appeared to be intact.
This accident is still under investigation.
