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Lawn chair balloonist crashes into a tree after world record attempt

Lawn chair balloonist crashes into a tree after world record attempt

Up, up and away was the dream for a Washington man who tried to break a world record flying a lawn chair with balloons over the weekend, but then reality quickly let him down.

After Joe Barbera floated high into the sky like the house in the animated film Up, he fell into a tree, according to the television station KTVK.

The retired engineer from La Center, Wash. was trying to break two world records for the longest and farthest flight using helium balloons on his sixtieth birthday. The longest such flight so far lasted 13 hours and 36 minutes, according to Guinness World Records. The balloonist, Jonathan Trappe, flew over North Carolina overnight, travelling 109 miles.

Barbera was trying to travel about 268 miles, according to reports.

Barbera built a contraption at home using a chair and 100 balloons, and he readied his supplies, but the voyage was doomed by miscalculations and misfortune. After he took off on Saturday morning many balloons popped, forcing him to throw almost everything overboard, including his oxygen and even his shoes.

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Then he rose up too high, according to KTVK, and without oxygen the altitude was dangerous. He said he popped more balloons, and then he started to drop. Several hours and a nap later, rescuers arrived to help him descend from a tree that wasn't far enough away to earn him the record. The news outlet said he had planned to land in Oregon.

A post on Barbera's Facebook page says the cameras and the cell phone he brought on his flight were ruined, meaning there is no record of his adventure except for the GPS data, which is still stored on his device — up in the tree.

Two lawn chair balloonists who tried a similar stunt last summer met hail and snow as they flew over Oregon, according to the Toronto Star. They faced a rocky landing and didn't make it as far as they had planned, but they weren't injured.

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