The improvised balloon had too much buoyancy and, because it lacked a properly working valve, it rose quickly and much higher than planned. Freudenberg couldn't sink and spent more than five hours aloft. At first, his course was west-south-west. With wind velocities of about 20 km/h at the time he must have reached West Berlin after about 20 minutes. Later, Freudenberg passed over the Berlin Tegel Airport where he lost or dropped some ballast. His altitude must at this point have increased to more than 2,000 meters (6,500 feet), as his course now changed to south due to different direction of higher altitude winds. The balloon was sighted over Teufelsberg hill at dawn, where it was mistaken for a weather balloon. Shortly before flying into East German territory again, at 7:30, Freudenberg fell into the garden of a villa in the suburb of Zehlendorf. The remains of the balloon came down about one kilometer away on the median strip of a thoroughfare. Freudenberg's body was discovered hours later in the garden of a villa on Limastrasse. He evidently died instantly from injuries sustained in the crash. Nearly every bone in his body had been broken, and virtually every internal organ had been damaged.