“It's beyond our expectations”: a Frenchman, Rémi Ouvrard, broke the world altitude record while standing on a hot air balloon, reaching an altitude of 4016 m.
The young balloonist set off on Wednesday in Châtellerault, in Vienne, with the Telethon hot air balloon, piloted by his father.
At the start, the young record holder aimed for the 3637 m, in reference to the number of calls for donations of the association.
But during the climb, Remi felt he could do more.
“Every thirty seconds, we sent messages to my team.
At one point, I told them, listen, you have to beat the iron while it's still hot, since we're close to 4000, you might as well go!
Says the flying man.
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Also benefiting from favorable weather that day, Rémi Ouvrard finally managed to reach 4016 m, thus smashing his previous record of 1217 m, reached in February 2020. To keep his balance on the top of the balloon, a wooden plank had been installed before takeoff.
Rémi was attached to a harness.
And to mark the return, the day before, of astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the ISS, the 28-year-old young man had dressed as a cosmonaut.
"We tried to replace it in the sky," he said with a wink.