The Croatian authorities and all ships in the area have also been notified. No signals have been detected from the Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT), which should have activated on impact with the ground or water or set off by the pilots. Both families have been informed that the Gordon Bennett 2010 Control Centre received recorded transponder readings from the air traffic control unit in the local area where the balloon had last been tracked. Transponder readings showed the height, time and location of a balloon in a coded form.

The Gordon Bennett 2010 Control Centre examined the transponder readings from Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis? balloon, registration N801NM, and calculated the change in height of the balloon over the time period recorded. The data show that the balloon had a moderate descent rate initially which then increased into a high rate of descent to about 50 MPH. It is the opinion of the Gordon Bennett 2010 Flight Control Team that the balloon appears to have suffered a sudden and unexpected failure.

Each balloon that entered into the race was provided with a GPS tracking device, which transmitted the position, altitude, speed and direction of each balloon back to race control. The trackers use the Inmarsat D+ tracking service, which allows short bursts of data to be sent from the balloon to the tracking providers. The U.S team balloon was also equipped with a satellite telephone, VHF radios, radar transponder and two mobile telephones as well survival suits, lifejackets and two single-person life rafts.