Overview
- The Atlantic Explorer lifted off from Presque Isle, Maine on Thursday and touched down near Tandel/Bastendorf in Luxembourg early on Sunday after about 70 hours in the air.
- The crew of three—Bert Padelt, Alicia Hempleman‑Adams and Peter Cuneo—reported an unofficial distance near 2,852–2,853 miles, average altitudes around 14,000 feet and peak speeds reported up to roughly 90–100 km/h.
- The project says this is the first crewed trans‑Atlantic crossing in an open‑basket balloon using hydrogen as the sole lifting gas, and Alicia Hempleman‑Adams is the first British woman and only the second woman overall to cross the Atlantic by gas balloon.
- Pilots spent the voyage exposed to freezing weather and icing, used supplemental oxygen at altitude, and made continual altitude changes to ride wind layers because, after clearing Newfoundland, the only alternative landing would have been the open ocean.
- The success follows earlier Atlantic Explorer attempts and a 2025 forced landing, underscores the rare use of flammable hydrogen rather than helium, and is likely to prompt scrutiny of safety practices and flight planning in long‑range gas‑balloon operations.