Adventurers start journey across Atlantic Ocean in hydrogen balloon

The balloon was seen over Cape Breton before making its way over open water

Kris Tynski was driving home from work when he noticed a white dot flying overhead in Cape Breton.

He took out his camera and zoomed in on what appeared to be a hot air balloon.

“From afar it didn’t look like much of anything, just a round, very small circle in the sky,” said Tynski.

The aircraft, called the Atlantic Explorer, is actually a hydrogen gas balloon. Unlike a hot air balloon that requires a fuel source to heat air, the Atlantic Explorer requires no heat and uses hydrogen, which allows it to stay aloft much longer.

That's good news considering the balloon and its three pilots are on a big mission to cross the ocean. If successful, they will be the first balloonists to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-basket gas balloon using hydrogen for lift, according to the mission's website.

The team took off from Presque Isle, Maine, on Thursday and flew over New Brunswick, P.E.I., Cape Breton Island, and Newfoundland.

They plan to land somewhere in Europe. The journey is expected to take about six days.

Kevin Stass, the head of flight control for the mission, said exactly when and where the landing will be depends on a number of factors, including wind speed, how much ballast they have left, and how the pilots are doing.

“Wind shifts can take you to various places. That’s the great thing about ballooning,” he said.

“You never know where you are going to end up.”

The three pilots — Bert Padelt of Pennsylvania, Peter Cuneo of New Mexico, and Alicia Hempleman-Adams of England — are sharing an aluminum-frame basket about the size of a closet.

Stass said Padelt built the balloon, and his love for ballooning began at a very young age.

“He’s been building balloons for a number of years. It’s always been his dream to fly one of his own balloons across the Atlantic," said Stass.

Cuneo, who has a background in competitive balloon races, has been flying gas and hot air balloons for three decades, while Hempleman-Adams holds multiple ballooning world records.

The balloon can be tracked as it crosses the ocean on the Atlantic Explorer website.

Anna Rak is a reporter for CBC Cape Breton. She can be reached at anna.rak@cbc.ca.