YORK HARBOR, Newfoundland (AP) A U.S. balloonist who was trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean using hundreds of helium-filled balloons has landed short of his goal in Newfoundland. "This doesn't look like France," he posted on Facebook.
Jonathan Trappe was heading home Friday. He reported that he was havingtrouble controlling his balloons before landing Thursday evening, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He touched down safely and required no medical attention.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday that it used a helicopter to retrieve Trappe from the remote area where he landed.
"I've never been so glad to see the media," he told a CBC reporter when he was found.
The CBC said the much of the area around his landing site was impassable and isolated south of the small Bay of Islands community of Lark Harbour.
Trappe had hoped to be the first person to cross the Atlantic using a cluster of balloons. Instead of using a conventional hot-air balloon, he was using more than 300 helium-filled balloons, like those used in in the animated movie "Up."
Trappe lifted off Thursday morning from Maine. By the evening, he was well on his way, headed toward Newfoundland. But a couple of hours later, he posted that he'd landed.
The airborne journey had been expected to take anywhere from three days to six days.
"The Atlantic Ocean has been crossed many times, and in many ways, but never quite like this," Trappe said on his website before his departure.
In 2010, Trappe crossed the English Channel using a cluster of balloons. For his trans-Atlantic crossing, the basket in which he was riding was actually a lifeboat that could have been used if he ditched in the ocean.
The North Carolina native said he'd worked on the trans-Atlantic crossing for two years, and he was no stranger to using clusters of balloons. He's once used them to lift a faux house, as in the Disney-Pixar movie, and he'd used them to cross the English Channel.
Trappe will likely have to meet with Canada Border Service Agency before being allowed to return to the U.S., officials said.
