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Man hoping to cross Atlantic with cluster of balloons lands in Newfoundland
- 3327 13y agolast time a priest tried this from brazil. Never to be seen or found again. Had all the proper tracking gear too and beacons. When you land in the middle of the Atlantic most of that is no good unless you have a raft.
- gtCameron 13y agoFTA - "For his trans-Atlantic crossing, the basket in which he was riding was actually a lifeboat that could have been used if he ditches in the ocean."
- cpncrunch 13y agoWhen I read the title I thought "not another lunatic", but it does sound like he planned it quite well. He is an IT manager after all. I thought maybe he should have worn an immersion suit, but perhaps that is unnecessary with the lifeboat.
- josefresco 13y agoI'm not sure about the guy from Brazil, but at least this guy had/has done some crossings like this before.
- baddox 13y agoWhy didn't he have a raft?
- coldtea 13y agoWhich reminds me of this Monty Python short: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvk2wNWmB20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvk2wNWmB20
- moomin 13y agoWhilst I generally applaud people wanting to do crazy stuff just for the hell of it, there's a downside to this particular project http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/18/helium-party-balloons-squandered http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/18/helium-party-...
- aaron695 13y agoCrossing the Atlantic compared to party balloons? W... T... F...
- herbig 13y agoYeah, this is a silly argument. The downside to posting on the Internet is that you're using energy resources, whose production destroys the environment.
- themstheones 13y agoThanks for the heads up. Stopping now.
- baddox 13y agoI thought the only reason there's a predicted shortage is that stockpiles are being aggressively sold off, lowering the price below the point where it would be profitable to produce helium on the market. Granted, once the stockpiles run out, there could be a rough period, but the price (i.e. what buyers are willing to pay) would probably quickly return to levels which would make production profitable.
- ck2 13y agoWhen people attempt to do these things, I hope search and rescue bills them for their expense.
- grecy 13y agoHe's going to hike out under his own steam.
- CrankyPants 13y agoSAR wasn't dispatched.
- cgh 13y agoApparently this guy just got rescued by the CBC, of all things: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/09/13/nl-balloon-crossing-newfoundland-landing-913.html http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/20...