Jonathan Trappe attempts to cross the Atlantic simply by clinging to helium BALLOONS!!!

A bold aviator this morning began the world's first ever attempt to cross the Atlantic ocean dangling precariously from a massive cluster of helium-filled balloons.

This man, named Jonathan Trappe who is only 39, took off from Caribou, Maine and he expects the journey to Europe will take him between 3 and 5 days; the winds will make him land anywhere between Iceland and Morocco.

Jonathan is an IT technical project manager from Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Like a fairytale from the Disney movie 'Up', the North Carolina man will attempt to make the 2,500-mile solo trip to Europe relying on 370 colorful balloons filled with helium. 

It is a feat that has never been attempted before; but there is something we should all know; five people have died during 12 conventional hot air balloon attempts when trying to cross the Atlantic. For instance, in 2008 A Brazilian priest, Adelir Antônio de Carli, died trying to make the journey using helium filled birthday balloons.

Father Adelir Antonio de Carli began his flight suspended in a harness-like seat from 1,000 balloons in the southern port of Paranagua. He had intended to fly 20 hours due west, but unexpected winds carried the 42-year-old out over the south Atlantic on a southeasterly course.

Jonathan said to the media that he was just as afraid of dying as anybody could be. But still, he moved forward with his unbreakable spirit of adventure and in the pursuit of achieving something nobody has achieved before.

A successful crossing will see Jonathan fly into the history books as the first person ever to scale the ocean in a flight of this type.

Jonathan and his team had faced an agonizing wait of more than 100 days in Caribou for the weather conditions to be good enough to carry him across the 'Pond', typical for this time of the year. Jonathan said 'It was nail biting waiting for a weather window that would allow me to get up into the air and catch those transatlantic winds we'd been seeing.’

 

'I need to get on them and ride them across like a conveyor belt.' During the crossing, this bold man will face climbing as high as 25,000ft to ride the winds that will propel him towards Europe.

To ascend he'll drop ballast and will pop balloons or release them into the air if he needs to fly lower because of the possible favorable winds at lower altitudes.

Jonathan already holds the record for the longest ever cluster balloon flight of 14 hours, but said: 'This is far greater than anything achieved before, I'm looking at 62 hours or longer.'

Volunteers clutch on to seven helium balloons ahead of Trappe's take off this morning after the journey was put on hold for months due to poor weather conditions

Jonathan became the only person to have crossed the English Channel by cluster balloon in May 2010, and the Alps in September 2011. Previous flights have seen him travel in a simple office chair suspended by the balloons

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This time he's elected to dangle inside a small yellow life boat in case he ditches into the ocean. 'If I touch down on water then the attempt will be over as it will be impossible to take off again, but the boat will keep me alive.'

It will be incredibly dangerous as I could be several days away from any rescue crew and it will mean surviving rough seas for a long time, alone.'

Jonathan will be in touch with his team on land via satellite phone. He sent his first message shortly after taking off this morning to Chief Meteorologist, Don Day. 

As we can see Life imitates art: In the Pixar film, Carl Fredricksen strapped hundreds of equally bright balloons to his house to transport it from the U.S. to South America

To follow Jonathan's progress through his official media partners visit: https://share.delorme.com.