China deflates balloonists’ hopes

As the world marvelled at Breitling Orbiter-2, a 117-feet high gas balloon that travelled through France, Italy, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan on its way to India showing new frontiers that human endurance and science could scale, the Chinese remained unimpressed, citing technicaldifficulties and security risks to other aircraft if the balloon went over their territory.

"It’s a very sad moment," flight director Alan Noble told mediapersons in the control room in Geneva after the attempt was abandoned. He said the balloon might come down in Burma or Thailand after more than a week-long journey rife with problems with gear, weather and geopolitics.

Noble said the balloon would keep flying through India and then across the Bay of Bengal. The flight director added that although the Chinese had not given their final no, it was now too late for the Orbiter to pick up the fast jet stream winds needed to speed it around the world.

Indian authorities in Geneva confirmed today that they had issued some dozen visas for the Orbiter’s Swiss-based control team to fly to India tonight in time to receive the balloon if it were to land somewhere in east India.

Piccard and his flight mates Belgian pilot and navigator Wim Verstaeten and British flight engineer Andy Elson aboard will put downsomewhere between Calcutta and Thailand on Thursday or a few days later with an endurance record under their belt but their ultimate dream deflated.

On Tuesday, the Euro-trio broke the endurance record earlier held by American balloonist Steve Fosset by remaining in air for six days, two hours and 44 minutes although the American went three times as far in his machine called Solo Spirit. Lack of fuel forced Fosset to set down in a village 375 miles southeast of New Delhi. "It’s the icing on the cake, but unfortunately we haven’t got the cake," Piccard said in a message from the balloon soon after setting a new world endurance record.

The Chinese attitude "leaves a bad taste in the mouth" said Piccard, who comes from a famous family of explorers (Piccard’s grandfather, a renowned physicist, served as the model for the professor in the comic series Tintin).

The towering silver balloon was slated to catch the jet stream, picking up speed as it headed towards China, a push that would have brought theballoon over California in four days. The jet stream is used by commercial and military aircraft and Chinese officials said air traffic was busier than normal because of the Lunar New Year holiday. Even on Wednesday morning, officials at the flight’s control centre based in Geneva’s Cointrin airport kept their fingers crossed for a last minute miracle for their balloon to go into China. For most of Tuesday, Orbiter wafted towards Delhi from Pakistan at no more than 20 miles per hour as high level contacts between Switzerland and China failed to make any headway.

This is the 14th effort ever to capture the elusive prize of being the first to circle the globe non-stop in a balloon. Mission control officials are now predicting that the trip could last 17 to 18 days. Two days after take-off, the Orbiter’s capsule developed a leak leading to a very slow oxygen leak from the pilot’s capsule. The leak was repaired over the weekend.

The trip around the world would have declared as successfully complete once thetrio reached the same meridian — the imaginary circles on the earth’s surface passing through the north and south poles at any particular place — as Chateau d’Oex. But the adventure gave thousands of people in this country and beyond a chance to dream — thank you, Bertrand, Wim and Andy.