Two hot air
balloon pilots have touched down in Mexico, completing a record-breaking flight
across the Pacific Ocean. The six-day adventure smashed world records unbeaten
for over three decades.
Deutsche Welle, 31 Jan 2015
View of earth from the Two Eagles Balloon |
The
helium-filled balloon piloted by the American Troy Bradley and Russian Leonid
Tiukhtyaev landed safely in the sea just off the Baja coast near La Poza Grande
on Saturday.
"The
pilots made a controlled descent to a gentle water landing about four miles
(6.5 kilometers) off the ... coast. The balloon is stable and still inflated
and the pilots are fine," the Two Eagles balloon team announced.
Meanwhile,
at mission control in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the balloon team and pilots'
families exchanged hugs and relieved smiles as they watched the landing on a
giant screen.
Relief and joy. Two Eagles gas ballon pilots are out of the ballon capsule after successful water landing, Baja coast pic.twitter.com/SijuFt62u0
— Marla Brose (@marlabq) January 31, 2015
Historic
flight
Bradley,
50, and Tiukhtyaev, 58, set off on their epic voyage from Saga, Japan, on
Sunday morning. By Friday, they had broken consecutive distance and duration world records by flying for over 137 hours and traveling more than 8,383
kilometers in a gas-filled balloon.
According
to the Two Eagles team, the duo's six-day journey was eventually timed at 160
hours and 37 minutes at a distance of 10,696 kilometers (6,646 miles). They are
the first crew to attempt a trans-Pacific balloon crossing since 1981 - when
the distance record was set. The flying duration record of 137 hours was set by
a trans-Atlantic balloon flight in 1978.
Mission
control director Steve Shope said he was "really pleased" with the
numbers. "These are significant improvements over the existing
records," he said. "We didn't break them by just a little bit. They
were broken by a significant amount."
Bradley and Tiukhtyaev managed to keep their spirits up during the grueling journey |
The two men
traveled in an unpressurized carbon-fiber flight capsule, described as being
smaller than a king-sized mattress, and took turns piloting the balloon in
shifts of four-to-six hours. They had to stay rugged up in cold-weather gear
and use oxygen masks to be able to withstand the conditions at an altitude of
over 4,700 meters (15,500 feet).
Organizers
cautioned that the new world records would not be made official until they had
been certified by US and International Aeronautics Associations.
nm/mkg (AP, AFP, dpa)
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