Travel

‘Up’ balloon trip’s abrupt end

His bubble burst!

The daredevil who tried to fly across the Atlantic under a huge cluster of balloons has failed — after only 12 hours in the air.

Jonathan Trappe, 39, of North Carolina crash-landed in Newfoundland, Canada, on Thursday evening after suffering a technical glitch.

“Thankfully, he is safe and well and currently making preparations to get home,” Kevin Knapp, who oversaw the flight, according to London’s Daily Telegraph.

“While disappointing that he had to cut his quest across the Atlantic short, I know Jonathan thanks everyone for their support and encouragement.”

Trappe had set off on the 2,500-mile journey at 6:30 a.m. Thursday in Caribou, Maine, waving to reporters from an inflatable yellow lifeboat hoisted by 370 helium-filled balloons.

He had said the weather would be his greatest challenge for his flight.

But it was a technical problem with the balloons that took the air out of his trip, his handlers reported.

The voyage was expected to take as many as six days and reach heights of up to 25,000 feet.

Trappe had acknowledged that he could land anywhere from Iceland to Morocco but confessed to entertaining fantasies of touching down in Paris to be welcomed by media cameras and champagne.

After landing instead in total darkness in the Canadian woods, Trappe acknowledged with some humor how far off the mark ended up.

“Hmm, this doesn’t look like France,” he noted on his Facebook page.

“Landed safe, at an alternate location. Remote,” he added in another post. “I put the exposure canopy up on the boat. Will stay here for the night.”

It’s not the first time Trappe has tried the stunt, which resembled the flight taken in Pixar’s film “Up.”

In 2010, he became the first man to fly over the English Channel using a balloon cluster. He was also the first to complete a helium-balloon flight over the Alps in 2010.

Trappe told reporters before setting out that his balloons were of the kind commercially available for parties and events.

He said he could control his altitude — sinking by cutting balloons loose and rising by ditching a sand bag or two — but couldn’t steer the craft.