PEI

Hydrogen balloon heading for Europe makes 'precautionary landing' in eastern P.E.I.

Three crew members are safe after a hydrogen balloon on a transatlantic flight path had to make what the Transportation Safety Board is calling a precautionary landing in Prince Edward Island. 

All 3 crew members safe after landing, TSB collecting data and assessing situation

A white air balloon is seen in the sky.
A hydrogen balloon is shown floating over Prince Edward Island shortly before landing in a swamp near Cardigan, P.E.I., on Thursday. All three crew members are safe, though one was treated for minor injuries, according to the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre. (Submitted by Ronald MacDonald)

Three crew members are safe after a hydrogen balloon on a transatlantic flight path had to make what the Transportation Safety Board is calling a precautionary landing in Prince Edward Island.

"It is with a heavy heart that we have to inform you that the Torabhaig Atlantic Explorer Balloon has been forced to land ... with a suspected gas leak," reads a post on the project's Facebook page.

The balloon landed in a swamp near Cardigan, on P.E.I.'s east coast, where crew members became stuck, said the Halifax-based Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre. 

The rescue centre said a local EMS team treated one crew member for minor injuries, and all three are safe. 

"This was a precautionary landing, not necessarily an emergency landing. The balloon landed in a boggy/marshy area and came to rest on its side," the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in an email to CBC News. The federal agency said it is collecting data and assessing the incident. 

End of mission called 'heartbreaking' 

A hydrogen balloon flies by using a sealed sack of hydrogen gas, which gives the balloon buoyancy, said Kevin Stass, a member of the flight control team who is located in the United Kingdom. 

A white balloon can be seen in a marshy area with flags attached to it.
'To have something like this happen... it's heartbreaking really,' said Kevin Stass, a member of the flight control team who is located in the United Kingdom. (Rick Gibbs/CBC)

During the daytime, the sun heats the gas, which causes it to expand and thus lifts the balloon higher, he told CBC News in an interview. 

On Thursday, the crew could not understand why the balloon was not rising during the daytime when the sun's warmth should have been causing it to do so, he said. That's what led them to conclude they had a gas leak. 

When you're going to commit yourself to flying across the Atlantic, you've got to make sure that everything is absolutely correct.— Kevin Stass

"When you're going to commit yourself to flying across the Atlantic, you've got to make sure that everything is absolutely correct," Stass said. "Unfortunately, they had to come to the very hard decision of having to land."

Ambitious plan to cross the Atlantic in a hydrogen balloon comes to an end in a P.E.I. swamp

6 days ago
Duration 2:07
The three-person crew of a hydrogen balloon attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean has come back to earth on Prince Edward Island. The balloon flew over a large swath of the Island before the crew, suspecting a leak, put it down in a marshy area in Kings County. CBC's Nicola MacLeod has the story.

Stass said the plan was always to stay on or close to land for the first 24 hours of the adventure, before taking the balloon out over the Atlantic. He said the balloon was damaged during the landing, so the mission is over for now.

The crew was "extremely disappointed" about the landing, Stass said. 

"To have something like this happen... it's heartbreaking really," he said. 

Similar attempt in 2024

The Torabhaig Atlantic Explorer was aiming to be the first craft of its kind to cross the Atlantic Ocean, according to the group's website. 

A white balloon can be seen in the air.
The balloon is seen in this image flying above Cardigan, shortly before it landed in a swamp near the eastern P.E.I. community. (Kimberley Anne Carver/Facebook)

According to a series of posts on the group's website, a similar attempt was made in 2024. The attempt was aborted because of weather, with the balloon making its landing in New Brunswick. 

A post on the site said the balloon, "piloted by Bert Padelt and co-piloted by Peter Cuneo and Alicia Hempleman-Adams, will take flight as part of an audacious adventure of old friends on a journey that will look for new scientific discoveries while aiming to become the first ever flight of an open basket hydrogen balloon across the Atlantic."

View from the ground as a white hot-air balloon rises into the night air.
The balloon is seen from below in an image from the Torabhaig Atlantic Explorer website. (Website of Torabhaig Atlantic Explorer)

The project's website said the balloon took off from Presque Isle, Me., Wednesday night around 10 p.m. ET.

"Their route will take them from Maine over Newfoundland, Canada, across the Atlantic Ocean, and then Ireland and Scottish waters before landing in Europe, traversing over many thousands of miles," the site said.

In the hour before the emergency landing, many Prince Edward Islanders noted the white aircraft in the sky and posted photos and questions about it on social media. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gwyneth Egan is a digital writer at CBC Prince Edward Island. She is a graduate of Carleton University's master of journalism program and previously interned with White Coat, Black Art. You can reach her at gwyneth.egan1@cbc.ca

With files from Nicola MacLeod