Balloon flight continues

Balloon flight continues

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (Reuters): U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett
headed across the Indian Ocean yesterday, trying to find an
altitude that would carry him neither too far north nor south to
reach Australia in his bid to become the first to fly around the
world nonstop in a balloon.

At midnight EDT (11 p.m. Jakarta time) as he entered the sixth
day of his journey, Fossett was 1,287 km southeast of Cape Town
at 7,429 meters. He had traversed 10,933 km since taking to the
sky over western Argentina last Friday.

He already has two achievements in his flight jacket -- first
to cross the South Atlantic in a balloon, and second-longest
manned balloon flight. The latter he accomplished Tuesday when he
passed his own record of flight, 9,337 km, which he had set
during his last around-the-world bid.

Fossett, a 54-year-old financial markets millionaire, also
holds the record for the longest flight -- 16,670 km from the
United States to India, set during a 1997 try.