Balloon Launched In Iowa Ends Up In Michigan
ALGOMA TWP. (WWJ/AP) - A balloon launched in Iowa by a Wisconsin man to capture images from high in the atmosphere ended up crash landing in a Michigan tree.
Milwaukee resident 37-year-old John Flaig launched the balloon earlier this month from Calmar, Iowa. The weather balloon was rigged with a video camera and still-frame cameras.
After a four-hour flight high above at what Flaig estimates was 110,000 feet or more, the balloon never even hit the ground after it popped and plummeted, Mlive.com reported.
Flaig expected the balloon to return to the ground near Milwaukee, but instead it ended up across Lake Michigan in a tree in Kent County's Algoma Township, about 20 miles northeast of Grand Rapids.
Flaig tracked the progress of the balloon, which had a GPS device. He got the cameras back and posted photos captured from the balloon online.
He said in an email the images are "even more amazing" than he expected.
View videos and images captured along the balloon's journey at www.johnflaig.com.
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