Fire on round the world balloon

After an uneventful flight around the world, Steve Fossett’s Spirit of Freedom balloon burst into flames forcing the American adventurer to climb out of his capsule in the middle of the Australian night to put it out.

’’Even though the RTW (round the world) is completed, I really nervous until I can get this balloon on the ground,’’ Fossett told his mission control staff in St. Louis.

usty winds had made it too risky earlier for the 58-year-old Chicago multi-millionaire to end his record-breaking balloon flight, forcing him to spend another night aloft, slowly drifting toward Australia’s self-proclaimed remotest town.

Fossett said the fire started immediately after a hose fitting came loose about 1700 Irish time today.

He was able to put out the fire by shutting off a ball value joint, which is used to attach the hose to propane fuel tanks and the balloon’s burner. It was not clear from Fossett’s e-mail to his base at what end of the hose the fire started.

‘‘The priority is to shut off everything then figure out the cause,’’ Fossett wrote.

The fire came after the balloon passed over a natural gas field, causing a ‘‘rock’n roll ride’’ that forced Fossett to raise the balloon from 5,000 to 8,000 feet.

The shock of hearing about the fire - the first emergency of Fossett’s sixth attempt to circumnavigate the globe - came with relief at mission control, since Fossett reported the fire in the same note in which he said it was out.

‘‘When it happened, it was a big deal,’’ said Joe Ritchie, Fossett’s mission control director. ‘‘Even though the flight is over and you’re flying low, you can still get killed.’’

The adventurer sailed into the record books on Tuesday night as he crossed east of 117 degrees longitude to become the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.

But after crossing the south Australian coast, Fossett was met by gusty winds, and his support crew decided to have him fly through the night in search of better weather.

‘‘I think he’s more than ready to get this over with,’’ Ritchie said.

After earlier targeting a dawn landing near Birdsville, an outback settlement of about 100 people famous for its annual horse race meeting that draws thousands of people for a beer-fuelled September weekend of revelry, Fossett’s team was planning a landing near South Galway.