Grand Canyon cameras sent into the stratosphere found two years later

TUBA CITY, Ariz., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A group of friends who launched balloon-mounted cameras from the Grand Canyon in Arizona said the cameras turned up two years later with their footage intact.

Bryan Chan, who shared the edited footage on YouTube, said the balloon was launched a few miles from Tuba City, Ariz., with a GoPro Hero3, Sony Camcorder and Samsung Galaxy Note II phone to take videos and still images of the Grand Canyon from the stratosphere.

However, Chan said in a Reddit post the group lost contact with phone, which was taking still images and tracking the balloon's location during the June 2013 flight.

"TWO YEARS LATER, in a twist of ironic fate, a woman who works at AT&T was on a hike one day and spotted our phone in the barren desert. She brings it to an AT&T store, and they identify my friend's SIM card. We got the footage and data a few weeks later!" Chan wrote.

Chan said in an email to UPI the "Grand Canyon Stratospheric Balloon Team" also included Ved Chirayath, Ashish Goel, Tyler Reid and Paul Tarantino. He said the project was supported by vedphoto.com and Broadcom.

Chan said the balloon reached an altitude of 98,664 feet and was in the air for an hour and 38 minutes.