A trio of European adventurers enjoyed a spectacular lift-off yesterday but were making only gradual early progress in the latest non-stop round-the-world balloon attempt.
Four hours after they sailed into blue skies from the Swiss mountain village of Chateau d'Oex, cheered on by some 3,000 spectators, they were moving slowly near Mont Blanc in the French Alps, just 80km away.
The Breitling Orbiter-2 balloon, with the three inside its sealed cabin below, climbed quickly and headed south towards Italy and the Mediterranean. A communications antenna problem prevented a planned dawn departure on a journey across the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific, North America, the Atlantic and back to Europe or possibly North Africa. The silver, aluminium-coated balloon was inflated during the night in a snow-covered field at Chateau d'Oex, an international ballooning centre.
With its Swiss mission leader, Mr Bertrand Piccard (39), a trained psychiatrist who is from a famous family of explorer-inventors, in the orange and blue capsule are a Belgian pilot and businessman, Mr Wim Verstraeten, and a British engineer, Mr Andrew Elson.
Their mission, originally due to start three weeks ago but postponed when the capsule was damaged while being lifted from a transporter, is the latest in a series of round-the-world balloon attempts in the past two years. Last January Mr Piccard and Mr Verstraeten had to ditch in the Mediterranean after fuel leaked into the cabin.