August 28, 1998 [day five]
Airplanes are being routed around the MANTRA balloon.
BBC News starts writing about the runaway Canadian scientific balloon!
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/160567.stm
The balloon is now drifting over the Atlantic Ocean, being tracked by a Department of National Defence (DND) Aurora patrol aircraft.
August 29, 1998 [day six]
The United States, Iceland, and the UK are tracking the balloon.
The balloon continues on its trans-Atlantic journey…
August 30, 1998 [day seven]
The BBC News illustrates for its UK readers that the MANTRA balloon is much larger than Big Ben and wider than several football fields:
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/161148.stm
The balloon enters Icelandic airspace.
The US is reported to be tracking the balloon with its fighter jets.
It is later stated by a scientist (Tom McElroy) in a Canadian Geographic article that the US decided against actually shooting it.
The balloon continues.
The US loses track of the balloon somewhere north of Iceland.
The balloon later enters Norwegian airspace west of Spitsbergen.
Its altitude is estimated to be 6 km.
August 31, 1998 [day eight]
The balloon is sighted in Russian airspace, above the Barents Sea near the Kol’Skiy Peninsula.
A Russian atmospheric scientist, Nikolay Elansky, is contacted by Canadian scientists. They advise the authorities about the balloon and calculate its likely trajectory.
Next: The Landing