A man who sadly lost his life in a hot air balloon crash sent his girlfriend a heartbreaking final text before he passed.
Chayton Wiescholek, 28, was enjoying the hot air balloon ride in Eloy, Arizona earlier this year.
He was one of 13 people aboard the balloon which included eight skydivers and four passengers.
His girlfriend, Kinsey Taylor, was among the skydivers who jumped to safety before the balloon malfunctioned, according to Fox 17.
The crash occurred around 7:50AM in a remote desert area, resulting in the deaths of Wiescholek, Kaitlynn Bartrom, 28, Atahan Kiliccote, 24, and the balloon’s pilot, Cornelius Van Der Walt, 37.
Valerie Stutterheim, 23, survived the incident but was in critical condition - though thankfully she continues her recovery with various forms of therapy, as she outlined on her GoFundMe page.
Taylor had completed her skydive moments before disaster struck. It wasn’t until she landed that she saw the final message from her boyfriend.
"She looked at her phone and had a message from my son. It said, 'I love you.' He knew he was going to die," Wiescholek’s mother, Rhonda, told reporters.
Wiescholek’s father, Gary, added that his son’s last thoughts were with Taylor: "Chayton texted Kinsey on the way down and said that this ain’t gonna be good, 'I love you, goodbye,' and signed off," per KTVU.
Gary further revealed that Taylor tried to call Wiescholek immediately, but another person answered the phone, saying: "This is not good, you need to be here now."
In response, she "shredded her parachute harness and ran two miles to get to him," but authorities did not allow her near the crash site.
The couple, who lived together in Union City, Michigan, had been on vacation in Arizona and had plans to marry, according to Gary.
Chayton's mother, Rhonda, flew to Arizona upon hearing the tragic news.
Speaking to local news outlet Arizona’s Family, she said: "I’m staying here until I can take my son home. I am not leaving without him."
"There’s not a whole bunch more you can say. You’re just broken," she added. "He was just up in the balloon to be with her, and all the skydivers had jumped out of the balloon. Then something went wrong, and we still don’t know what."
Despite her grief, Rhonda found some solace, saying: "Knowing that he was happy, yes. Because that’s all I’ve ever asked of my children is I want you happy, and he was happy with her. So, I know he was happy."
A GoFundMe page was launched after the incident, with the aims of aiding the financial burden on Chayton's family.
The page raised just over $16,000.
