Balloonists come a full circle

GENEVA, MARCH 20: A Swiss doctor and British pilot, riding friendly winds and their own dogged spirit, today crossed an invisible line on...

GENEVA, MARCH 20: A Swiss doctor and British pilot, riding friendly winds and their own dogged spirit, today crossed an invisible line on Africa’s map and drifted on into immortality, the first to realise man’s century-old dream of circling the world in that fickle, fragile craft called a hot-air balloon.

After 19 days aloft, Bertrand Piccard, Brian Jones and their silvery Breitling Orbiter III floated past longitude 9 degrees west (3.24 pm IST) to complete the 41,850 km-plus, nonstop circumnavigation, a feat that had challenged and eluded dozens of balloonists before them. Triumphant but weary, the record-making duo sped on toward a landing probably early tomorrow in Egypt.

For all the dangers and difficulties of long-distance ballooning, the historic voyage was relatively uneventful for Piccard, 41, grandson and son of famed explorers of the air and sea, and Jones, a 51-year-old balloon instructor and grandfather.

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They lifted off among the snowy Swiss Alps on March 1, drifted down to the sands ofNorth Africa, caught a jet stream and headed on across the Arabian desert, over India and on to the lush green of Southeast Asia.

Since US publisher James Gordon Bennett established a trophy for long-distance ballooning in 1906, sportsmen have striven to fly the farthest, eventually setting their sights on a round-the-world flight. Americans Maxie Anderson and Don Ida made the first attempt, in 1981, but flew only 2,676 miles, from Egypt to India.

There was celebration in the Breitling Orbiter makeshift control room at Geneva airport, where a team of flight controllers, meteorologists and technicians has been following the balloon’s progress 24 hours a day.Chief meteorologist Luc Trullemans said the balloon had more than enough fuel to make it to Egypt. “They’ve got two bottles of fuel left, we don’t need a whole day’s flying any more but we need to conserve some fuel because the landing may be difficult,” said Trullemans.

In a conversation with air traffic control in Dakar, Senegal, this morning,Piccard was asked whether he was going to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, or to Mali. “Negative. We do not land. We go to Egypt. We are a balloon flying around the world,” Piccard replied.