He Pulled It Off
And, yes, everyone was thinking about what you’re thinking right now. “If there’s a catastrophic balloon failure partway up, David comes crashing down to Earth,” a narrator said in a YouTube video for the event. His goal was to reach 18,000 feet above the ground, and in mid-air, he had the challenge of actually putting on his parachute pack.
Source: Instagram / @davidblaine
Within 40 minutes, he had risen to over 19,000 feet, eventually reaching a height of 24,900 feet. He then put the parachute on successfully and landed safely. He completed the whole event within an hour. Sure, he successfully pulled it off, but here are a few things that could have gone wrong with the balloon flight…
He could have experienced oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) and hypothermia. There was also a chance he could have catapulted back down to Earth if he either didn’t manage to put his parachute on or if it failed to open. Then, there’s the possibility of “catastrophic balloon failure.”