Wind gust dashes Fossett's dream

Fossett's solo flight has had to be aborted

KALGOORLIE, Australia -- A freak gust of wind has forced U.S. millionaire Steve Fossett to abort his bid to become the first man to fly a balloon solo around the world.

As final preparations were being made for the flight on Sunday, his balloon was ripped in a gust of wind during inflation.

Solo Spirit bid spokesman Keith Jenkins said it was too early yet to say whether the massive balloon could be repaired or whether the whole bid would have to be abandoned, crushing Fossett's dream to at last capture the aviation prize.

"It may not be (all over)," Jenkins told Reuters. "But it doesn't look very good. I don't know if it can be repaired or not, it's hard to say at this point.

"It's not going to happen in the next couple of days."

Fossett said: "We have put so much into this particular attempt -- emotionally, time, financially.

"I think it would be very difficult to mount another attempt with the same enthusiasm we mounted this attempt."

Strong winds had delayed the first scheduled inflation of the 50-metre (150 foot) tall, eight tonne (20,000 pound) balloon earlier on Sunday evening at the launch site in the outback Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie.

But Fossett's crew, which had been waiting in the remote town for weeks for suitable weather conditions, finally began the three-hour process to pump up the balloon just after 9 p.m local time (1300 GMT), looking to launch just after midnight.

"The balloon got hit by about a 10-minute gust of wind," Jenkins said.

"It just pulled it forward, the capsule collapsed on its side...and the balloon tore in several places."

Jenkins said Fossett was not at the launch site when the mishap took place, but he expected him to be disappointed.

"It's crushing really... We've been down here for a month, waiting and waiting and waiting, and it finally looked like it was going to happen and now it's not," he said.

Fossett had admitted earlier on Sunday that he was "very nervous and very worried" ahead of the final countdown for the bid, his fifth attempt at the solo flight.

But he told reporters it was the best-prepared flight he had been involved in and he expected it to be successful.

"This is where the pressure is, at the launch and at the early part of the flight," Fossett said.

Fossett's last solo bid ended in near-disaster in 1998, when he was caught by a thunderstorm off Australia's northeastern coast that shredded his canopy and sent him plummeting 29,000 feet (9,000 metres) into the Coral Sea.