Watch: Pilots cross Pacific Ocean in balloon

Albuquerque, New Mexico: Two pilots in a helium-filled balloon on a record-setting journey across the Pacific Ocean enter the final leg of their trip on Friday as they travel along the California coast for an expected landing somewhere in Mexico.

The pilots made history on Thursday, first matching and then surpassing the 8,383-kilometer official world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon. Their next milestone is a 1978 duration record of 137 hours, 5 minutes and 50 seconds in the air in a traditional gas balloon, a mark that is considered the ‘holy grail’ of ballooning achievements.

The Two Eagles team was expected to surpass that on Friday morning. They hope to land on Saturday somewhere on the peninsula of Baja California, where volunteer chase crews were being organized to help with the landing.

The balloon team originally planned to cross into North America in Canada but shifted the plans because of changing weather. They are now catching a wind pattern that will take them south toward Mexico. The balloon was about 644 kilometers northwest of San Francisco when it hit the distance mark.

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“There it is! There it is!” shouted team members at the flight’s mission control in Albuquerque as a giant screen showed the helium-filled Two Eagles balloon passing the record set by the Double Eagle V in 1981. In a matter of hours, they hit another milestone in similar fashion when they reached the 8465-kilometer mark.

That is the distance, 1 per cent more than the current record they needed to meet to establish a record under international aviation rules. The distance still has to be confirmed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, a process that can take weeks.

“We’re not taking any time to celebrate,” said Steve Shope, head of mission control.