"The flight itself was interesting, fairly long, but went extremely well, " Jones, a 51-year-old British balloonflight instructor, said of the 20-day adventure.
In March 1999, Piccard was on the final leg of an around-the-world journey by hot air balloon the first-ever nonstop flight of its kind when his Breitling Orbiter 3 swept low over the Egyptian desert and skidded to a halt on the corrugated plains.
An inbound international flight scheduled to land at LAX with 20 wheelchair requests may see that number balloon to 50 requests at the last minute, officials said.