Balloonists Ride Winds Into History

CAIRO —  Balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in their shimmering silver Breitling Orbiter 3 descended safely today in a remote Egyptian oasis, completing the dream of becoming the first balloonists ever to circle the globe and accomplishing the longest nonstop flight ever without refueling.

Their 9-ton, helium-and-hot-air craft, nearly as tall as a 20-story building, achieved the goal of circumnavigation that had eluded balloonists in at least 17 attempts since 1981.

The landing after nearly 20 days aloft was in the Dakhla Oasis, 350 miles southwest of Cairo, shortly after 6 a.m. GMT [10 p.m. PST Saturday], flight controllers said. Touchdown was north of Mut, the capital of the oasis that was once an outpost of ancient Rome on the edge of the civilized world.

They are an unlikely pair. Piccard, a 41-year-old Swiss psychiatrist with a penchant for hypnosis, is the son and grandson of aeronautical and nautical pioneers, and aimed to add his own world record to his family’s impressive list of accomplishments.

Jones, 51, a British grandfather of three and a balloon-flying instructor, is a man described by his wife as “not an adventurer.” He joined the expedition only at the last minute in December, when a spot opened up for him.

On Saturday, they completed the round-the-world circuit. Controllers said the pair had enough liquid propane fuel left to carry them to a touchdown this morning in Egypt, but strong winds and sandstorm conditions precluded Jones’ “secret wish” to set the Orbiter down at the foot of the Great Pyramids of Giza outside Cairo.

The powerful jet stream sped the Orbiter across North Africa at 125 mph at an altitude of 36,100 feet. The balloonists began their descent after crossing the Egyptian border from Libyan airspace.

The race to circle the globe intensified two years ago, when U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch offered a $1-million prize for the first team of balloonists to circle the Earth by the end of the 20th century.

Having transcended political barriers, zigzagged around storms and found a providential breeze through a Central American calm, the Orbiter clinched the around-the-world record at 1:54 a.m. Saturday PST, when it crossed the “finish line” of 9 degrees 27 minutes west longitude over Mauritania.

By then the pilots had flown 19 days, 1 hour and 49 minutes, and had covered 26,755 miles, each taking six-hour shifts at the controls.

“I am with the angels and just completely happy,” Piccard exulted.

“Just a fabulous way to finish,” Jones added.

Asked if they had had any chance for celebration inside their cramped, pressurized capsule, Jones said: “I think what I am going to do is phone back the control room in a minute and tell my wife I love her, and then have a cup of tea like any good Englishman.”

A tide of congratulations poured in from around the world. Among them was one from Queen Elizabeth II, who said: “The news of your splendid achievement has delighted us all.”

“It is one of those rare feats that bring together dreams, human adventure and technological prowess,” French President Jacques Chirac said.

Piccard burst into tears Friday, when it became clear from meteorological reports that they would be able to complete the circuit of the Earth.

“We can hardly believe our dream has finally come true. We almost got lost in the global problems and then the slow winds of the Pacific and the bad heading over the Gulf of Mexico,” the two pilots said in a message to their control room. “But each time, with God’s help and the great teamwork, the balloon got back on course for success. We are the privileged two of a wonderful and efficient team that we would like to thank with all of our hearts.

“We are eternally grateful to the invisible hand who has guided us through all the obstacles of this fantastic voyage.”

Their feat left better-known balloonists graciously envious.

Richard Branson, the celebrity businessman who founded Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways and who has made three failed balloon attempts to circle the Earth, called their trip “one of the greatest achievements.”

“They have had to put up with the elements. They have had to put up with technological problems. And they have had to put up with themselves,” he said.

American millionaire Steve Fossett, who had teamed with Branson in a failed attempt in December, credited Jones and Piccard with winning “one of the greatest competitions in aviation history.”

“We’ve done it,” said flight director Alan Noble, who sprayed champagne on meteorologists and reporters gathered at the flight control center at Geneva airport.

It was Piccard’s third attempt to circle the globe in a Breitling Orbiter in three years.

The first, in 1997, ended in disaster almost as soon as it began, with a helium leak that forced him to splash down in the Mediterranean. The second bid got farther, from Switzerland all the way to Myanmar in Southeast Asia last year.

Unlike those problem-plagued flights, Orbiter 3’s journey seemed remarkably charmed. Part of its success undoubtedly was because of Piccard’s personal diplomacy--winning permission from authorities in Beijing to use a corridor of Chinese airspace for a faster, more direct route to the Pacific.

That permission, which was extended to all balloonists, was almost withdrawn after the Branson-Fossett team in December strayed out of the defined corridor and then declined a Chinese request to land.

Piccard and Jones lifted off March 1 from Chateau d’Oex in the Swiss Alps, flying south and west to Morocco before catching a jet stream that sent them soaring across North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, China and onto the Pacific, which they crossed in six days.

East of Central America, the balloonists lost their favorable winds and became stalled between Mexico and the Caribbean, threatening the entire enterprise.

It was the voyage’s most pessimistic moment, until the pilots caught an air current that nudged the craft back on course across the Atlantic.

It was not only the longest balloon flight ever, but the longest nonstop flight by any aircraft without refueling, said a statement by the Orbiter’s sponsor, Breitling. The Swiss maker of watches and precision equipment has never revealed how much it has spent on the around-the-world quest.

The Orbiter beat the previous flight record of 17 days, 18 hours and 25 minutes aloft, which was set two weeks ago by British pilots Andy Elson and Colin Prescott before their balloon came down in the Pacific.

Piccard, whose bald and boyish countenance has captured the Swiss imagination, follows in a line of adventurers.

His father, Jacques, now 76, in 1960 set the record for the deepest ocean descent by reaching a depth of 35,797 feet in a bathyscaph. The deep-oceangoing craft was invented by Bertrand Piccard’s grandfather, physicist Auguste Piccard.

Along with U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh, Jacques Piccard descended into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific--the lowest point on the Earth’s surface.

Auguste Piccard was the father of pressurized flight. In 1931, he rose more than 51,000 feet into the stratosphere in an airtight cabin attached to a balloon, the first human ever to fly so high.

Jones, a former Royal Air Force pilot, began ballooning in 1986 and became involved in the Orbiter project in 1997.

He was only named to join the flight with Piccard only on Dec. 9, after a disagreement over flight tactics between Piccard and the previously scheduled British pilot, Tony Brown, prompted Brown to step aside.

Jones’ wife, Joanna, who is also a balloonist and has been working in the Geneva control room, said her husband’s opportunity “just came along, and destiny gave then the result.”