On the scheduled day, a large group of spectators showed up in the Chocholowska Valley, brought by special buses and taxis. There were also numerous journalists, including those from the "National Geographic". As the Kraków's "Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny" newspaper wrote later, the crew, dressed in special uniforms with parachutes, loaded into the gondola. The bag began to raise at around 1:00 a.m., but strong winds made the task difficult. Few spectators knew that the bag was being filled with highly combustible hydrogen, the same gas implicated in the "Hindenburg" disaster. The safer alternative, helium, was not available to them as most of the world's supply was in Texas and the United States made use of most of the production.