ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 20, 1997 TAG: 9701200153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: Associated Press
Lacking enough fuel to make it across the Pacific Ocean, balloonist Steve Fossett decided Sunday that halfway would have to be good enough in his attempt to fly nonstop around the world.
The 52-year-old Chicago securities trader planned to land his huge silver balloon, Solo Spirit, over northern Indian early today, U.S. time. Fossett was trying to hold out to break the six-day, 16-minute endurance record although thunderstorms could force him down earlier, crew members said.
``It's been a fantastic flight from a lot of different angles,'' said Doug Blount, one of Fossett's ground crew assigned to tracking the balloon.
The adventurer took off last Monday from St. Louis and has passed by several thousand miles his own world distance ballooning record, 5,435 miles traveled on a 1995 flight from Seoul, South Korea, to Canada.
He had hoped to become the first balloonist to fly nonstop around the globe but conceded from the start that it was a long shot.
Floating at 20,000 feet above India on Sunday, Fossett and his supporters back in the Midwest plotted a landing before he began passing over the rugged mountains of Southeast Asia or the Pacific Ocean.
``There's enough fuel for a couple of days, but that would put him out over the Pacific, and I don't think he wants to try a water landing.''
Fossett had lifted off with 700 gallons of propane fuel in tanks around his capsule - enough, he had hoped, to circumnavigate the planet.
His ground crew was unable to explain why he ran short.
``That's a big mystery to everybody here,'' Blount said from the team's headquarters at Loyola University in Chicago. ``We just don't know. There are a bunch of different theories.''
Fossett failed his first round-the-world attempt one year ago. His current attempt is the third by a balloonist this year.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB