X-SciTech

Winds Puncture Balloon Trip

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 17, 2001 / 2:09 PM EDT / CBS

The fifth time still wasn't the charm for an American balloonist who was hoping to float solo around the world, reports CBS News Correspondent Sam Litzinger.

It's back to the drawing board for adventurer Steve Fossett, who was hoping to launch his balloon from Australia for an a trip into the record books: the first person to make a solo balloon flight around the globe.

Instead, high winds ripped his 17-story balloon to pieces as it was being inflated in Australia. Fossett was not on board at the time and no one was injured.

Fossett said the balloon was so badly damaged it would have to be sent back to its makers in Britain for repair and would not be ready in time for a fresh round-the-world attempt this year.

"I'm emotionally disappointed," he said.

Reuters

Fossett posed before the high winds punctured his plans.

Later, at a news conference, Fossett said "I'm not sure there will be another attempt...It would be very difficult to make another attempt at this...but it's too early to say." He pointed out that a balloon trip requires a huge time commitment — and "the right weather conditions."

Hundreds of spectators, many clutching small balloons and eating hot dogs, had gathered outside the gates at Kalgoorlie's tiny airport to watch the final preparations of the 140-foot-high, 60-foot-wide silver balloon.

Inflating the balloon with a mixture of hot air and helium takes hours and requires very light winds. Even moderate winds can catch underneath the balloon and tear it during the first stages of inflation.

Before his team began inflating the balloon late Sunday, Fossett, a 57-year-old Chicago investment tycoon, was upbeat about his chances of success.

"This is the best-prepared balloon flight I've been involved in," he said.

Fossett planned to spend about 15 days in a cramped yellow capsule, breathing oxygen through a mask, eating military-style rations and sleeping no more than 45 minutes at a time for a total of four hours a day.

"The food will be dreadful," Fossett joked.

Jet stream winds were to have propelled the balloon around the world at speeds up to 130 mph and altitudes reaching 30,000 feet.

The planned flight path would have taken him eastward around the globe in the Southern Hemisphere, and almost 90 percent of his time would be spent over water.

The adventurer has tried the solo flight four times before.

Fossett's first attempt to fly around the world in October 1996 started in Rapid City, South Dakota, and only reached New Brunswick, Canada.

A January 1997 flight began in S. Louis and made it to Sultanpur, India. The next attempt from St. Louis, in December 1997, ended with a crash landing in a wheat field in Krasnodar, southern Russia.

Fossett tried again in August 1998 with a flight from Argentina, but ran into a thunderstorm that tore open his balloon and sent him crashing into the Coral Sea 500 miles east of Australia. He was located by French and Australian planes and rescued by a yacht.

In December 1998 he attempted the flight with two other balloonists. They left from Morocco and came down near Hawaii.

They were beaten to the round-the-world record in March 1999, when Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and English balloon instructor Brian Jones made the flight nonstop in the Breitling Orbiter.