'Two Eagles' have landed to claim records

A gas-filled balloon co-piloted by an American and a Russian touched down safely in the waters off Mexico on Saturday, completing a weeklong trans-Pacific flight that unofficially broke two world records, a spokeswoman said.

The balloon carrying Troy Bradley of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and his Russian co-pilot, Leonid Tiukhtyaev, landed near La Poza Grande in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, after a flight lasting six days, 16 hours and 38 minutes and covering 10,696 kilometers.

Bradley and Tiukhtyaev, known as "the Two Eagles", left Saga in southern Japan on Jan 25 in their attempt to surpass the world distance record for flying a gas-filled balloon, as well as the record for time in flight. Both records need to be certified before becoming official. "The pilots made a controlled descent to a gentle water landing about four miles off the Baja coast," said Kim Vesely, a spokeswoman for the ballooning mission.