Balloonists Brave Post-Flight Surprise

They had circled the world, covering more than 28,000 miles during a 20-day flight that broke the record for balloon aviation. But Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, pilots of the history-making Breitling Orbiter 3, had trouble Sunday getting a half-hour lift to the nearest airport.

After bumping to ground about 50 miles north of the oasis of Dakhla, Piccard and Jones were left sitting on the sand in Egypt’s Western Desert for seven hours, contemplating nature and collecting their thoughts, waiting for a ride back to civilization.

“We could see absolutely nothing on any horizon, and it just seemed right somehow,” Jones, 51, said at a news conference here Sunday night. “We had time to collect our thoughts, to get ourselves organized, and we even washed our hair.”

The pair were never in danger, but it was frustrating for mission organizers. Flight director Alan Noble, who had witnessed the 8:03 a.m. landing of the balloon from his airplane circling nearby, blamed the delay on crossed signals.

Egyptian authorities had been poised to make an immediate pickup in case of an emergency, Noble said. But because they knew Piccard and Jones were safe, the Breitling organizers did not initially report their difficulties in extricating the pilots.

Noble and his team, who had flown in from Switzerland, were struggling overland through the loose sand thinking that they would have to perform the rescue themselves. Unbeknownst to them, a military helicopter finally showed up at 3 p.m. and flew Piccard and Jones back to the airport in the oasis.

At the end of the day, Noble could chuckle about it, and Piccard and Jones showed no hint of displeasure. In fact, they made clear that they enjoyed their desert sojourn. The 41-year-old Piccard said he sat outside, his back against the capsule that had been their cramped home since March 1, and savored the sand, the air, the sun, the swallows that flew overhead, even the insects.

There is one major problem, however, Noble said. The Breitling team, which spent millions of dollars over five years to sponsor the around-the-world journey, has no way to recover the balloon and the capsule sitting on the desert plateau because the terrain is inaccessible to heavy trucks.

Noble appealed to the Egyptian military for the “favor” of helping to retrieve the balloon so that it can be given as a historic artifact to the Smithsonian Institution or some other museum.

For Jones, a British balloon-flying instructor, and Piccard, a Swiss psychiatrist, the next few days mean reuniting with family and enjoying the fruits of their adventure. One pending decision is how to set up a charitable trust with part of the $1-million prize that has been promised by U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch for the first round-the-world balloon voyage.

What had they learned from the experience? Piccard said that floating through the air for so long made him feel closer to God and made him regret all the politics and intolerance that divided people passing 30,000 feet beneath them.

“We were in another world in our gondola. It was like a little piece of paradise,” he recounted.

* FAMILY HIGHLIGHT

A globe-circling, record-breaking balloon trip is celebrated in Pacific Palisades.B1