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CNN Live Today

Members of Fossett Balloon Crew Discuss Trip

Aired July 02, 2002 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just moments ago, Chicago millionaire Steve Fossett cashed in his good fortune and he achieved a victory that he considers priceless. After five failed tries, he has finally completed a two-week trip that whisked him around the world and into the history books as the first solo balloonist to circle the globe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE FOSSETT: I put everything into this, all of my efforts, all of my skills. I’ve taken the risk associated with this over this long period of time, and finally, after six flights, I’ve succeeded, and it’s a very satisfying experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And not just satisfying for Steve Fossett but for those who have been directing his way and his route from Mission Control.

That’s where we find our Jeff Flock, joining us live right now -- Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Daryn. I’m going to keep my voice down because we’re still in the midst of a tail end of the press conference here now. This is a whole team that perhaps you see, if Bill’s able to widen out and show you. This is part of the team that he put together. And when asked today what was the difference -- obviously, this it try number six -- why did it take so long, and what was the difference this time, he said it was the team, and he said he felt when he started out maybe it would take not the first try but a second try. Well, it’s taken six tries but now he’s done it.

Here are the latest numbers. It apparently took place, the crossing, at about 38 or 39 minutes past the hour. That would be well within the last half hour now it officially happened. And the next question, of course, is when is he going to get on the ground.

That will not take place until our time here in the United States tomorrow morning, probably around 6:00 or 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.

And I got to just tell you the other headline here. You know, Steve Fossett has made so many accomplishments, both in balloons as well as sailing as well as flying aircraft, first across the Indian Ocean, first across the South Pacific, first across various continents, Africa, South America. When asked what else, is there anything else out there that you can do, he says he’s going to be the first, he’s going to attempt to become the first man to fly a glider into the stratosphere, and when I asked when he would embark on that, he said he would try that before the end of July.

So that maybe gives you some sort of indication about what kind of a man we’re dealing with here, a man who just does not give up and continues to find new challenges. This challenge, though, seems to be finished, although again getting him safely on the ground, Daryn, is a very important, you know, element of all of this, and that is still quite a long ways away.

He can not land right away because of problems with winds. He needs to get a nice calm environment, and that will not be possible until tomorrow morning our time here -- back to you.

KAGAN: And Jeff, I do know this news conference is going on, but I would like to get in this one question about his landing. You mentioned he just can’t land right away. Can he even control where he lands or how he lands?

FLOCK: Well, they’re trying to right now. I just asked Joe Ritchie who is the Mission Control Director about where they were trying to target, and he tells me a little town called Forest in Australia. It’s a tiny town. And originally they were shooting for a town called Kalgoorlie, which was a place where apparently the mayor there had given him a boomerang, and he was hoping to get back to that location, obviously boomerang, but that’s not going to fly.

It appears, seems like Steve is still on the line. He’s still got Steve Fossett still on the line. I’m just sort of listening with my other ear there to Joe Ritchie. Joe Ritchie goes a long way back with Steve Fossett, about 30 years.

So, I don’t know if Steve’s still talking, but that’s the end of it. And I’ll tell you everyone is cheering here, and you know I might be able to get a question quickly to Joe Ritchie. These guys are all congratulating each other. Also Bert Padelt who is the Systems Director, and this is just a tremendous achievement for them.

And I don’t know if I can get in with Joe right now. Joe, do you even believe it?

JOE RITCHIE, DIRECTOR, MISSION CONTROL: You know, it’s like coming up on the end of one of these deals, you try to just bring your lunch pail to work, do everything totally normally, and mentally say it’s just another day at the office. But somehow, once he crosses, yes, your brain sort of just blows up a little bit.

FLOCK: I’ll ask both you and Bert, did you ever think he was crazy to continue? I mean there’s tremendous cost, tremendous personal danger. Did you ever think he was nuts?

BERT PADELT, SYSTEMS DIRECTOR: No, I never thought he was nuts. He’s earned a lot of respect from me, and I think that he’s just an amazing guy.

FLOCK: Do you not have to be a little nuts, though?

RITCHIE: By conventional standards maybe, but you know I just admire the heck out of a guy that picks a goal like this and just keeps coming back until he makes it and he’s not doing it for press. You know, Steve’s that way when he’s swimming the English Channel when nobody’s looking. He has a persistence and a stick-to-itiveness and a buoyancy and a cheerfulness that I’ve just never seen in a guy.

FLOCK: What about this thing, glider into the stratosphere this month? Do you guys know about that?

PADELT: Oh yes, well aware of it. He was anxious to get off in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just because he was already planning this glider flight and he–

FLOCK: Which no one’s ever done?

PADELT: Oh, he’s trying to break -- you’re right. He’s trying to break an altitude record in flying in the stratosphere.

FLOCK: Are you going to be part of this, Joe, or what’s the deal?

RITCHIE: I don’t think so. This is one where I’ve said, Steve, you know, you got to be careful of this one. I mean ballooning is scary, and I think is, I think this one’s scarier.

FLOCK: Well, you said at the outset there were at least half a dozen incidents where it was either scary or incredible.

RITCHIE: More than a dozen incidents, and actually that’s pretty conservative. I think there were a lot of times when Steve was really spooked, and rightfully so. And a couple of times, including you know, getting knocked out of the sky from 29,000 feet, and including fighting a fire with, you know, liquid propane streaming all about.

FLOCK: On a previous trip?

RITCHIE: Yes, so he’s had some harrowing experiences.

FLOCK: And this one almost went, I don’t want to say too well, but this one went very smoothly.

PADELT: Well, it looks as though it did, although there was a lot of work to make this flight a success, a lot of work with the meteorologists to avoid the storms that he was flying. He had three storms that could have spelled disaster on this flight, and the meteorologists were able to steer him around every single one of them.

FLOCK: And just to not get ahead of ourselves here, celebrating, but he’s not on the ground yet, you know, that’s a big deal.

RITCHIE: Yes, he’s not on the ground. To officially make a record, the pilot has to land without killing himself first, and so yes, we’re going to get back to focusing on that. But we got good weather ahead and, you know, there’s going to be light surface winds. It won’t be a perfect landing condition, but it will be good enough, so he should make it the rest of the way without incident.

FLOCK: Guys, I appreciate it. I know everyone else is lining up to talk to you. Joe, I appreciate it, Bert, thank you so much, appreciate the time, very good to see you again and congratulations.

Well, there you go Daryn, that’s pretty neat and these guys back over here, I don’t know if we can get to them, but this is the weather team who also was given tremendous credit by everybody who has put this together. It was really a tremendous team effort and a tremendous success. So I’m going to try to get out of the way here and throw it back to you.

KAGAN: Very good, exciting times.

Jeff Flock, in St. Louis, Missouri, thank you so much for bringing that to us.

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