A helium balloon carrying two world-record breakers has landed safely just off the coast of Mexico.
The so-called "Two Eagles" aircraft spent more than six days and 16 hours in the air, travelling more than 10,000 kilometres over the Pacific.
Mission control says both pilots are believed to have landed safely - and the coastguard is helping bring them ashore.
In a statement on the mission's website, the team says "the pilots made a controlled descent to a gentle water landing about four miles off the Baja coast. The balloon is stable and still inflated and the pilots are fine."
American Troy Bradley and Russian Leonid Tiukhtyaev set off from Saga in Japan last Sunday, and had planned to land somewhere in Canada or the US.
However the BBC reports that changing weather conditions instead directed them towards Mexico.
The pair had made their journey in a special capsule, equipped with oxygen masks, sleeping bags and a basic toilet and heater.
The landing occurred six days, 16 hours and 37 minutes after the craft set off, travelling a total distance of 10,696km (6,646 miles).
The previous distance record of 5,209 miles was set in 1981 by Double Eagle V which was the first balloon to successfully cross the Pacific.
The duration milestone was set in 1978 in the first trans-Atlantic balloon flight.
Speaking about the record-breaking journey, Associated Press reports that Steve Shope, mission control director, said "we're really pleased with the distance numbers we have here and very pleased with the duration numbers. These are significant improvements over the existing records. We didn't break them by just a little bit. They were broken by a significant amount."
Another great photo from 15,000 feet, near Midway. Follow the flight of #TwoEagles http://t.co/HN2WwQD4ia pic.twitter.com/rhfJI01MYC
— Troy Bradley (@TwoEaglesTeam) January 27, 2015
Originally posted at 15.56
