‘I love you, goodbye’: Chayton Wiescholek's heartrending farewell message to skydiving girlfriend Kinsey Taylor just before death

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: A man who died in a hot air balloon crash in Arizona sent a heartbreaking final text to his girlfriend, who had jumped off the balloon for a skydive and was unaware of the tragedy.

Chayton Wiescholek, 28, of Union City, Michigan, was among the four passengers who lost their lives when the balloon crashed on Sunday, 14 January.

Girlfriend saw the message after landing safely

Thirteen passengers were on the hot air balloon, and eight of them, including Chayton's girlfriend Kinsey Taylor, had already jumped off before the balloon descended. No issues had been reported until that point.

Taylor remained unaware until she landed and checked her phone. It was then that she discovered a message from Wiescholek that said, "I love you, goodbye," serving as Wiescholek's final words to her.

"She was with him, but she was not in the balloon when it went down. She had already jumped for her flight. All the people doing the air flights had already jumped out of the balloon," Wiescholek’s mother, Rhonda told KTUV.

“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 Fox 17.

“Chayton texted Kinsey on the way down and said that this ain’t gonna be good, ‘I love you, goodbye,’ and signed off. So his last thoughts were with his girlfriend,” Wiescholek’s father, Gary, told the outlet.

Kinsey Taylor ran two miles to reach the crash site before calling Wiescholek's phone

Taylor immediately tried to call Wiescholek after seeing his text, but someone else answered and told her to come quickly.

“Somebody else answered his phone and said, ‘This is not good, you need to be here now,” Gary told KTVU. "

Taylor dropped her parachute harness and ran two miles to the crash site, but officials would not let her near Wiescholek.

Gary said his son had planned to marry Taylor, and they lived together with their cats in Union City Michigan. 

"I'm thinking in the matter of a few weeks, they were going to go to the courthouse and get married," Gary, Chayton's father, said.

The couple was on vacation in Arizona at the time of the crash. Kinsey is a skydiver and Chayton was along for the ride.

The balloon had crashed around 7.50 am, Sunday in a desert area in Eloy, a small town about 65 miles northwest of Phoenix.

The pilot and two other passengers also died, while one passenger survived with injuries.

Kaitlynn Bartrom, 28, of Andrews, Indiana, Atahan Kiliccote, 24, of Cupertino, California Cornelius Van Der Walt, 37, originally from Walvis Bay, Namibia, but resides in Eloy, Valerie Stutterheim, 23, of Scottsdale.

Van Der Walt, according to police, was the pilot.

'Numb and heartbroken' family remember Chayton Wiescholek as 'life of party'

Rhonda flew to Arizona as soon as she heard the news and said she would not leave without her son.

“I’m staying here until I can take my son home. I am not leaving without him,” she told Arizona’s Family.

She said she was comforted by her son's happiness with Taylor. "There’s not a whole bunch more you can say. You’re just broken,” said Rhonda.

“Numb … just numb. Not a lot you can do when your heart’s broken," Rhonda told Fox 17.

“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,” she said.

The family set up a GoFundMe page to honor Wiescholek’s memory, and described him as “the life of the party, the adventure seeker, and solid voice of reason.”

“For most, when we sit and reminisce on our fondest memories with Chayton we smile because that’s what he did, lit everything and everyone up with him,” they wrote.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.