US balloonist Steve Fossett ended his record-breaking solo round-the-world flight yesterday being dragged like a rag-doll through the dusty Australian outback.
When Fossett failed to deflate his giant Spirit of Freedom balloon on landing, the wind dragged the craft through the dirt for 20 minutes, tossing him painfully about inside his capsule.
When it finally came to a halt after 5km, a bruised Fossett crawled from the tangled mess, his mouth bleeding from a slight cut, to be greeted by some Australian outback cattle ranchers.
"I was concerned about not deflating the balloon and being dragged forever and looking like a hamburger by the afternoon," Fossett said at a Sydney news conference.
After five previously failed attempts to be the first to circumnavigate the earth solo in a balloon, Fossett said he planned no more long-distance balloon trips -- though he does plan to try to fly a glider near the edge of space.
"I think the balloon flights have been the most dangerous thing I have ever been involved in," Fossett said.
He crossed the finish line of his record-breaking flight at 13:40 GMT on Tuesday when he passed 117 degrees east longitude over the Southern Ocean, the same longitude he began his trip from in western Australia. He had flown nearly 31,380km around the southern hemisphere.
After 14 days of flying, Fossett's balloon finally came down at around 21:30 GMT on one of Australia's biggest cattle properties, the 810,000-hectare Durham Downs, some 300km southeast of the outback town of Birdsville.
"All the ringers [farm hands] were out watching, everyone was watching him go past," said Jill Rickert at the homestead.
Durham Downs is on the edge of what Aborigines call "The Never Never," some of Australia's most isolated land, which never seems to end when a person stands alone on the dusty plains.
Fossett said he braced himself against the side of the gondola for impact, but then was unable to deflate the balloon, leaving him helpless inside the rolling capsule.
With the wind blowing at 37kph, Fossett's rip cord, which deflates the balloon's envelope, was stuck, leaving the 58-year-old millionaire unable to stop. As he rolled along his ground crew struggled to grab hold of the rip cord, eventually managing to free it.
"Once it stopped, the capsule was lying on its side. I crawled out through all the burners and webbing," Fossett said. "I cut my gum from hitting the side of the capsule on landing. I have some sore muscles from pulling with all my might on the rip handle, which I couldn't open."
Fossett's balloon capsule is to be taken to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. There it will hang next to Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of Saint Louis, which made the first solo non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in 1927.
Asked why he had risked his life striving to fly around the world in a balloon, Fossett simply said: "It's a grand adventure."
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