January 10, 1996
Web posted at: 8:35 p.m. EST (0135 GMT)
HAMPTON, New Brunswick (CNN) -- An American balloonist attempting an around-the-world flight landed in a hay field after issuing an emergency distress call Wednesday morning, just two days after taking off in South Dakota.
A Canadian helicopter was at the place where 51-year-old Chicago millionaire Steve Fossett's hot-air balloon came down, said search and rescue spokeswoman Jeri Grychowski.
"We just got confirmation that it's down (at) Hampton Lake, New Brunswick," she said from the Canadian Search and Rescue Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Rescue officials had been looking for the balloon over the North Atlantic.
Fossett said he was forced to land after most of his equipment stopped working and he began having trouble producing enough hot air to keep the balloon aloft.
Flight manager Timothy Kemper had reported receiving a distress signal from the balloon at 7:16 a.m. (1216 GMT) Wednesday at the flight's headquarters at Loyola University in Chicago. Fossett was traveling over the Atlantic off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, at the time, about 30 miles northeast of the tip of Maine.
Dan Bedell of the Search and Rescue Center said during the search that radar indicated Fossett was still airborne and "clearly on the move," but poor visibility prevented Canadian coast guard search aircraft and ships from finding him. He apparently had been jettisoning material from his balloon, Bedell said. "They've found bits of pieces of equipment in the water but it looks like what he's doing is ditching stuff to lighten up," he said.
Two Canadian helicopters, a C-130 Hercules aircraft, and a Canadian Coast guard cutter were conducting the search.
Fossett left Rapid City, South Dakota early Monday. He was bidding to become the first person to circle the earth non- stop in a balloon. Fossett encountered extreme cold, a dead heater and trouble with his autopilot shortly after liftoff.
Kemper said Fossett's average speed before the emergency was 51 mph.
Fossett set the long-distance balloon record in February in a flight across the Pacific Ocean from Korea to Canada. When his heater broke down over Japan, he was forced to huddle in sub-zero temperatures for three days. The heater was later replaced.
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