Thrill-seeker uses helium balloons

These amazing photographs show the moment a thrill-seeker floated from 100 helium balloons above South Africa while strapped to a camping chair.

A British thrill-seeker has flown across South Africa — strapped to a camping chair and carried by 100 balloons, swns.com wrote.

Tom Morgan, 38, drifted nearly 16 miles through the sky and reached a height of 1.5 miles after spending two days filling the balloons with helium.

He had previously attempted the cluster ballooning stunt three times in Botswana before finally succeeding north of Johannesburg using the last of his helium supply.

Tom, from Bristol, added: “I found an article on a 1905 gas balloon race and thought ‘we could do that’.

“The problem was finding a good weather window and it was difficult to protect the balloons as they kept bursting.

“It was completely silent and the view was amazing — the whole thing was magical but I don’t think it will be a commercial success.” Balloons are filled with helium. The nerve-wracking, two and a half hour flight took Tom close to the approaches to Johannesburg Airport — but that was not his only concern.

He added: “I didn’t know what height the balloons would burst, or what the sun would do to them.

“At 8,000ft they started accelerating — into the flight path.”

The brightly colored party balloons needed 18×9 cubic meters of helium to get Tom off the ground.

The attempt was organized by the thrill-seeking League of Adventurists group and Tom was helped by Buddy Munro and Parajet employee Kester Hayne.

These amazing photographs show the moment thrillseeker Tom Morgan floated from 100 helium balloons above South Africa while strapped to a camping chair.

Tom’s friend Matt Dickens said: “The guys tried three times before this in Botswana, but sadly gusts of wind shredded the balloons.

“The last successful attempt was the last of the helium supplies, so it was literally an all or nothing attempt.”

Tom Morgan lands back on the ground in his chair.

He added: “Tom has been harping on about doing something with balloons for