Lack of Fuel to Cut Balloon Flight Short of Global Goal

CHICAGO â€”  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 had planned to land his Solo Spirit balloon over northern India early today. Fossett was trying to hold out to break the six-day, 16-minute endurance record, but storms could force him down earlier, crew members said.

“It’s been a fantastic flight from a lot of different angles,� said Doug Blount, a member of Fossett’s ground crew.

Fossett took off Jan. 13 from St. Louis and has eclipsed by several thousand miles his own world distance-ballooning record of 5,435 miles traveled on a flight from South Korea to Canada in 1995.

He had hoped to become the first balloonist to fly nonstop around the globe but conceded from the start that it was a longshot.

While he was 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 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,� Blount said.

Fossett had lifted off with 700 gallons of propane fuel in tanks around his capsule--enough, he had hoped, to circle the planet.

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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. “We just don’t know. There are a bunch of different theories.�

The crew has kept in touch with the balloonist by computer, although they lost communications for several hours early Sunday.

Fossett has endured bitterly cold temperatures in his cramped 4-by-6 1/2-foot cabin. “But he hasn’t complained about any particular problems,� Blount said.

For long stretches, however, temperatures in the cabin hovered near zero while he was flying too high for his heaters to work properly.

The prolonged cold spells led to fatigue.

“He’s been unable to sleep as much as he should have been able to sleep because the capsule’s been cold,� said Bruce Comstock, another ground crew member.