NORTH BATTLEFORD,
Saskatchewan (AP) - A French skydiver's hope to set a new free-fall record
might have come to an end on Tuesday when his ride to the sky left without him.
The helium balloon Michel
Fournier, a former army paratrooper, was going to use to soar to the
stratosphere detached from the capsule he was going to use to jump from
40,000 meters (130,000 feet).
It happened after the
balloon was inflated on the ground at the airport in North Battleford,
Saskatchewan. The balloon drifted away into the sky without the capsule.
Fournier appeared
disappointed as left the capsule and walked to the hanger. He was hugged by
members of his entourage.
The balloon was reported to
have cost at least US$200,000 (euro127,000) and Fournier was said to have
already exhausted his finances. His handlers planned a media briefing for later
Tuesday.
Fournier, 64, had planned
to make the attempt Monday, but had to postpone his plans because of weather
conditions.
Attempts in 2002 and 2003
ended when wind gusts shredded his balloon before it even became airborne.
Fournier hoped to break the record
for the fastest and longest free fall, the highest parachute jump and the
highest balloon flight. He also hopes to bring back data that will help
astronauts and others survive in the highest of altitudes.
An army of technicians,
data crunchers, balloon and weather specialists arrived recently in North
Battleford, a city of 14,000 near the Saskatchewan-Alberta boundary, for the
attempt.
Fournier had planned to
make the jump in his native France, but the government denied him permission
because it believed the project was too dangerous. He then came to North
Battleford, an agricultural and transportation hub northwest of Saskatoon.
Spokeswoman Francine
Lecompte-Gittens said Monday's postponement was due to unfavorable weather.
Fournier, who has more than
8,000 jumps under his belt, planned to be three-times higher than a commercial
jetliner. A mountain climber would have to ascend the equivalent of four Mount
Everests stacked one on top of the other.
It is expected to take
Fournier 15 minutes just to come down, screaming through thin air at 1,500
kilometers per hour (932 mph) - 1.7 times the speed of sound - smashing through
the sound barrier, shock waves buffeting his body, before finally deploying his
chute about 6,000 meters (yards) above the prairie wheat fields.
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