Jonathan Trappe, a balloonist who had been attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean but was forced to land in a remote area on Newfoundland's west coast, was picked up on Friday afternoon by a helicopter that had been chartered by CBC to conduct an aerial survey of the area.

"I've never been so glad to see the media," Trappe told CBC News videojournalist Lindsay Bird when she found him.

Trappe left Caribou, Maine, near the New Brunswick border, on Thursday in a small boat suspended below more than 300 helium-filled balloons.

He may not have made it to his European destination, but Trappe said the journey was about more than that.

"We set out on this expedition for the adventure, and we got the adventure," Trappe said.

"The destination was always unknown, and it's pretty grand where we've come in to. It's not the destination I set out for, but it's kind of the way with real adventure — adventure isn't what you planned on, it's what you find, and that's what we have today."

Trappe said he was burning through ballast too quickly to make it across the Atlantic and was forced to choose between landing in the isolated woods Thursday night or ditching over the ocean sometime Friday.

'Hmm, this doesn't look like France'

Once he was on the ground, Trappe said, he contacted his crew via satellite message to assure them that he was safe and there was not an emergency.

"The Atlantic Ocean has been crossed many times, and in many ways, but never quite like this," Trappe said in a promotional video.

"Hmm, this doesn't look like France," Trappe wrote in a post on his Facebook page Thursday.

Shortly after, Trappe posted that he had set up an exposure canopy on his boat to settle in for the night and included a link to a satellite map showing his location.

Trappe, who had intended to become the first person to fly across the Atlantic with only the aid of cluster balloons, landed in a remote area south of the small Bay of Islands community of Lark Harbour.

Much of the area surrounding where Trappe landed is impassable.

There are no roads leading to the location, but residents had been trying to reach him on ATVs, without success.

Trappe has made a name as an adventurer using clusters of balloons, including flying in a house, much as in the Disney-Pixar animated film Up.