Pilots in Two Eagles Balloon Land Safely in Mexico Susan Montoya Bryan - The Associated Press
go to original January 30, 2015

Two pilots of a helium-filled balloon have successfully touched down off the coast of Mexico after crossing the Pacific Ocean in six days. The duo has unofficially broken two records after starting in the south of Japan and then flying close to Hawaii before landing just off the coast of Baja California. Sky's Harriet Hadfield reports. (Sky News)

Two pilots in a helium-filled balloon landed safely off the coast of Mexico early Saturday after an audacious, nearly 7,000-mile-long trip across the Pacific Ocean that shattered two long-standing records for ballooning.

The pilots landed 4 miles offshore in Baja California about 300 miles north of the popular beach destination of Cabo San Lucas, greeted by a team of balloon enthusiasts who assisted with the landing. The pilots came in low and dropped thick trailing ropes into the ocean to help slow the balloon before setting down in a controlled water landing.

Mission Control in Albuquerque was packed with balloon team members and the pilots’ families, as all eyes focused on a giant screen showing a map of the coast and the balloon’s location as it descended. They exchanged hugs and smiled with relief after it touched down.

Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia lifted off from Japan Sunday morning, and by Friday, they beat what’s considered the “holy grail” of ballooning achievements, the 137-hour duration record set in 1978 by the Double Eagle crew of Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman in the first balloon flight across the Atlantic. They also easily exceeded the distance record of 5,209 miles set by the Double Eagle V team during the first trans-Pacific flight in 1981.

...By Saturday morning, the Two Eagles team had been in the air more than 160 hours and was smashing the distance record, having traveled nearly 7,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.

Read the rest at Sacbee.com



Pilots Troy Bradley (L) and Leonid Tiukhtayev in the capsule of the Two Eagles balloon. (Reuters)

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