Balloonist Facing Perilous Conditions

Fatigue, stress and swirling winds over the Indian Ocean threatened adventurer Steve Fossett’s attempt to become the first person to circle the globe in a balloon. A high-pressure system was “threatening to yank him into its center, which would make him loop and go nowhere,” said Alan Blount, director of Fossett’s control center at Washington University in St. Louis. If the balloon becomes stalled, Fossett could run out of fuel for the burners that hold the craft aloft. He was about 2,700 miles west of Perth, Australia, and had traveled more than 9,200 miles since he set out from Argentina.