Posted on 07/17/2002 5:50:22 AM PDT by 2Trievers
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Part of a giant balloon used by U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett in his record-breaking flight was back in the air on Wednesday after Australian souvenir hunters got more than they bargained for.
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Fossett landed his 140-foot-tall (42-meter) "Spirit of Freedom" balloon on a Queensland cattle station on July 4, after becoming the first person to circle the globe solo, and left the canopy for souvenir hunters.
Ranchers tried to tow the helium-filled inner bladder of the balloon away using a four-wheel drive, but it broke off and rose into the sky, manager of the Durham Downs station, Jaseleen Ferguson, said.
"The Toyota was lifting off the ground. It snapped away from the back of the Toyota and just went into the atmosphere," she said.
Ferguson said air safety authorities were alerted but an Air Services Australia spokesman said the balloon was unlikely to pose any threat to aviation.
The cupboard-size capsule which carried Fossett around the world in 14 days will rest beside Charles Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic plane "Spirit of Saint Louis" in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
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