Low-Pressure System Ends Circumnavigation Attempt

Three adventurers trying to make the first nonstop around-the-world flight in a balloon abandoned their quest Friday, ditching in the shark-infested waters off Honolulu a little more than halfway through their journey.

Coast Guard helicopters hoisted the crew from the water in good condition and high spirits.

The men--British mogul Richard Branson, U.S. millionaire Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden--quit seven days into their journey after they lost the high-altitude, high-speed winds they needed to carry them eastward across the Pacific to North America. They had gotten caught in a low-pressure trough and feared they would be stuck there for a week.

“We’re glad to be alive,” Branson said. “We thought we were going to make it all the way, but we hit a brick wall of bad weather.”

They lowered the 272-foot-high, combination helium and hot-air balloon and let it hit the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles north of the island of Oahu, where the craft bounced across the water in 3- to 4-foot seas for miles because the exploding bolts that were supposed to cut the balloon loose from the crew capsule had been frozen by the high-altitude cold and didn’t work.

Once the capsule settled in the water, they climbed out the escape hatches in the top and jumped off the back as the balloon continued to pull the craft through the water.

The men, wearing their survival suits, were in the water no more than 10 minutes before they were hoisted in baskets aboard two Coast Guard helicopters, Fossett said.

In a thank-you call to the operations control room in London, Branson said: “It was a ridiculous way to spend your Christmas Day, but it was certainly exciting.”

Lindstrand said he has ditched many aircraft in the past, but “this was the worst. It was horrendous.”

Fossett, who was forced to ditch in the Pacific during an attempt to circle the globe earlier this year, described the landing as “pretty smooth.”

The craft, which was aloft for 12,500 miles, was not immediately recovered, but Fossett said plans were underway to salvage at least the capsule and the equipment aboard.

All three balloonists have made a total of 11 attempts at a nonstop flight around the globe.

This time, as the balloon was landing, Fossett said, he was thinking “about the fact that I’ve made three attempts to fly around the world just in 1998, and it’s getting pretty discouraging.”

“I think it’s time to go sailing,” Fossett said.

The men were brought ashore at Barbers Point, about 10 miles west of Honolulu. U.S. Customs inspectors were waiting to meet them and have them sign the declaration forms required of all those entering the United States.

The balloon voyage began Dec. 18 in Marrakech, Morocco, and, if successful, would have ended in Western Europe.

Balloon pilots cannot steer, or control their speed with any precision, relying instead on extremely fast, high-altitude winds to carry them around the globe.

After racing across the Pacific in winds as great as 200 mph, the adventurers’ balloon got sucked into a low-pressure system. The best they could get was a 16-mph wind.