ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SULTANPUR, INDIA
SOURCE: DILIP GANGULY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Steve Fossett's silver balloon drifted down to a field of mustard and wheat and the applause of hundreds of villagers - none of whom could communicate with the Chicago adventurer.
It took a villager an hour's walk on rain-ravaged roads to bring back a policeman who could speak English. Then Fossett was taken off to a nearby town, a curry dinner and bed - having failed to fly nonstop around the world, but setting new records for distance and endurance in a balloon.
``As I prepared to land, I saw hundreds of people. I did not know what to expect. But they were lovely people. They all cheered me,'' Fossett said.
The 52-year-old securities trader set off in his Solo Spirit from St. Louis last week. After running out of fuel, he landed Monday at Piparpur, about 370 miles southeast of New Delhi, the capital.
He was later brought to nearby Sultanpur to eat and sleep.
``I had a little rough landing, but the only problem I have is that I am way behind in sleeping,'' Fossett said. He said he had only two hours of sleep a day.
He traveled 9,000 miles and floated in the air for six days, two hours and 54 minutes, according to his ground crew in Chicago.
Fossett said he struggled to keep his balloon over the Ganges River valley, which he considered a safe place to land.
``Thunderstorms came and I was real worried because my balloon could have been pushed toward the Himalayas in Nepal, and that would have been very difficult,'' he said.
The fuel problem that robbed him of a round-the-world feat remained unexplained. He had lifted off with an ample supply - 700 gallons of propane.
``I have to have a closer look why it didn't work,'' he said in the interview at the police chief's house in Sultanpur.
Fossett burned up extra fuel waiting for Libya to give him clearance to fly over, spokesman Bo Kemper said, but that alone didn't explain the fuel shortfall.
Fossett planned to return to his landing site Tuesday to prepare to get his balloon back to the United States. The Smithsonian Institution wants to display the gondola at the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Fossett had hoped to become the first hot air balloonist to travel around the world without stopping, but had to settle for breaking his own record for the longest distance traveled in a balloon and another record for staying aloft longer than any other balloonist.
He also claimed an altitude record, but could not immediately say what height he reached or what the previous record was.
Fossett matched a six-day, 16-minute balloon endurance mark about 11:30 a.m., then hovered at 500 to 1,000 feet, drifting with the winds for more than an hour.
He eclipsed by several thousand miles his own world distance ballooning record, 5,435 miles traveled on a 1995 flight from South Korea to Canada.
He endured bitter cold in his cramped cabin. For long stretches, temperatures hovered near zero while he was flying too high for his heaters to work properly.
Fossett had said he picked midwinter for the trip because of brisk winds and fewer thunderstorms.
On Jan. 8, British tycoon Richard Branson's balloon, Global Challenger, was forced down by equipment problems in the North African desert 19 hours after lifting off from Marrakech, Morocco, with three crew members.
Four days later, Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and his crew ditched in the Mediterranean after kerosene fumes filled their cockpit. They lasted six hours.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Fossett. color.by CNB