 They also circled the Swiss Alps at night to avoid crashing into them.While it was originally planned for them to fly to Moscow, it was determined that Istanbul would be easier, because it would allow for them to still break the record.The distance of , over a total of forty nine hours and twenty minutes helped to establish a distance record, which was the first known non-stop flight whose distance surpassed either English (5,000 mi) or metric (8,000 km) mark.