Three exhausted balloonists
By Crystal Kua
are grounded and grateful to be safe
--and at least one is already
up for another try
Star-BulletinBalloonist Richard Branson is praising U.S. Coast Guard personnel who rescued him and two crew mates after their around-the-world attempt ended dramatically yesterday with a ditching in rough waters off Kahuku Point.
"We were picked up incredibly quickly and incredibly professionally -- the most professionally I'd ever been picked up before," said Branson, who has been in other balloon mishaps.
The British entertainment and airline mogul acknowledged the risk the rescuers took in plucking them from the ocean.
"It's an incredible service," he said. "If they want to send us the bill for the cost, we'd be glad to pay for it ... pay our own way."
Branson, 48, Chicago millionaire Steve Fossett, 54, and Swedish balloon designer Per Lindstrand, 47, described the sudden end to their voyage at a news conference yesterday.
The trio's quest to fly around the world in a hot-air balloon was blocked by an impassable weather system north of the islands and led to their Christmas Day rescue about 10 miles north of Kahuku Point.
They left Morocco Dec. 18, hoping to steer the world's largest balloon -- the 12-ton, 200-foot-high ICO Global -- around the globe nonstop.
They traveled halfway around the world over areas such as China and the Himalayas, but it took a weather wall near Hawaii to bring them down.
"We were flying very rapidly across the Pacific, and a trough, which is similar to a low-pressure system, developed north of Hawaii," Fossett said.
They tried to steer around the south end of the weather system and then continue the voyage to the U.S. mainland.
"However, this trough extended farther south to the point where it became a total blockage of our passing through it. And we weren't going to get through it even if we spent four days trying," Fossett said.The crew originally thought they would land on Oahu.
"In fact, maybe we can be accused of trying to show off," Fossett said.
"Once we realized we were stuck in the weather pattern (Thursday), we decided that we would try to fly the balloon to Hawaii, and we actually had designs on landing the balloon in Oahu, which would have been a possibility. But our search-and-rescue expert back in our operations center in London prevailed upon us to land in the water as a safer landing."
"It was very good advice," Branson added.
A Coast Guard C-130 was flying nearby to help gauge weather patterns. The guard had been tracking the craft for several days. When it landed, Coast Guard helicopters were overhead.
After bouncing on 9-foot waves, the balloon, with Lindstrand at the flight controls, slowed enough so the crew could get out.
"We opened the hatch, and I had climbed out first and got out on the back side of the capsule. Richard followed, and then we pretty much counted to three," Fossett said.
"We literally jumped at the same time," Branson said.
"When Richard and I jumped out, we're in the water, we're right close to each other," Fossett recalled. "We reached over and shook hands, and I said, 'We survived.' "
Less than five minutes later, a Coast Guard diver was dropped down to assist the men.
"He came up to me and shook my hand and said, 'Merry Christmas,' " Fossett said.
The Coast Guard transported the three crew mates to its air station at Barbers Point. After it appeared they were not injured, a waiting limousine whisked them to the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
In London, the tension of a long Christmas night at the ICO Global Operations Centre was broken as the trio appeared on television.
"This was the real objective of our mission for more than 12 hours," Mike Johnson, a project spokesman, said of the rescue.
"We had long since stopped praying for a successful mission and were concentrating on getting our guys home safely," he said in a telephone interview last night.
Lindstrand, an engineer, said he is planning to examine the wreckage today after a Honolulu salvage company brings it to shore.
When the trio was asked whether they would be trying again, Lindstrand decisively said he would. Branson, on the other hand, was less certain.
"I've definitely used up my nine lives, and I suspect we've all used up our nine lives," he said. "We don't know if we have the technology to even do it."
