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Fossett Prepares to Land After Circling Globe in Balloon

Aired July 02, 2002 - 14:17   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: American Steve Fossett has finally done it. On his sixth try, the millionaire from Chicago has become the first person to fly around the world solo in a hot air balloon. But he still hasn't landed.

CNN's Jeff Flock is standing in St. Louis, where Fossett's ground team is happy, but still at work.

Hi, Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, hello to you.

Mission control here in St. Louis at Washington University. And perhaps you see behind me the route. I want to show you that in a moment.

But first I'll let you know that we're kind of in a bit of a lull at this hour. You know, he's already passed the goal-line, but now trying to get safely to ground.

And I just want to give you a sense -- you know, you may have seen the sophisticated mapping -- computer mapping. Here at mission control they kind of do it the old-fashion way, too. There you see the launch. That was the path across Australia to start out with. And then on, across the U.S., clipping the tip of South America; that was three-quarters of the way -- I should say that's the tip of Africa, if I get my geography straight. And then on across the Indian Ocean.

Now, here's where they are right now: somewhere off the coast here, still over water, we are told. So they are now in the process of trying to direct him in, pick up the winds because, of course, he's at the mercy of the winds. And it's been a tremendous team effort here.

And, you know, I didn't want to end our reporting without talking to some of the team members who have played a particular role.

Emily Fredrick, who's one of the student interns -- who knew that this thing was run half by student interns?

Do you know what you're doing?

EMILY FREDRICK, FOSSETT MISSION CONTROL: Yes, I think we do. There are 20 of us interns. And Barron Hilton gave us a lovely grant. And, you know, we're working round the clock, doing everything from the Web site, to the reporting, to radio actualities.

FLOCK: That's right, you were a journalist -- about to be a journalist here. In fact, you probably are a journalist.

FREDRICK: Yes I am, and in about a month I will be for The Associated Press.

FLOCK: Wow, excellent. Well, you must have had quite an experience here.

I've got to ask you, as we look at some of your colleagues, who are those guys up there in the rafters there? Those are interns as well?

FREDRICK: Yes. Those are the -- that's the Web team and the radio actualities team. And people call in from all over the world, and they get live radio updates.

FLOCK: I've got to ask you what this was like when the news finally came because, you know, he's done it before again and again and again. This the time number six.

What was that like when the news finally came that it really happened?

FREDRICK: It was Exciting. I mean, you know, we've all had experience on this before. And just, you know to finally be a part of it when it went all the way around, it's incredible, yes.

FLOCK: Well, I know Steve is very appreciative of your efforts.

And, in fact, let's listen to a little bit of what he said just after he crossed the 117th meridian.

Steve Fossett.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

STEVE FOSSETT, BALLOONIST: I've 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, you know, I've succeeded. And it's a very satisfying experience.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FLOCK: And there you see, perhaps back live, there's Joel Ricci (ph) there right now, the man who has headed and led master control -- mission control here.

And Emily, thanks to you, and thanks to the whole team for an amazing story, which we will, of course, continue to watch until it ends, either splashing down off the coast of Australia or, perhaps more appropriately, somewhere on the ground.

That's the latest from here, Kyra. Back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, hopefully it will be a soft landing. Thank you, Jeff Flock.

FLOCK: You said it.

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