“#TwoEagles has LANDED SAFELY just off the coast of Baja Mexico,” Bradley tweeted at 6:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. ET),
This happy ending was historic, albeit not entirely surprising: Less than two earlier, the 50-year-old pilot from New Mexico wrote “#TwoEagles has begun their (descent) and turn toward land.” Later messages, as well as a live flight-tracking online, showed the balloon getting nearer and nearer to the beach.
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A day earlier, the balloonists broke a 1981 record for distance traveled by a gas balloon. That previous mark of 5,208 miles (8,382.54 kilometers) was way in the rear-view mirror by the time the voyage ended Saturday.
CNN’s Marnie Hunter contributed to this report.
