A German hot-air balloon ditched into the Atlantic Ocean Saturday in heavy seas while taking part in the first-ever trans-oceanic balloon race, but a nearby tanker rescued all three crew members, a race official said.
'They have just been picked up by a tanker called Granite. We don't know where it was going. They are safe and well and everything is fine,' media spokesman Blethyn Richards told United Press International from race headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The balloon ditched around 1915 GMT (3:15 p.m. EDT) after encountering difficulties in bad weather, he said.
'The seas are pretty rough with 30-knot winds and three-meter (10 feet) high waves. The crew had to decide on getting through the night with an inadequate amount of fuel or risk a controlled sea landing and they decided on the latter,' Richards said.
Search and rescue crews in Halifax in the Canadian province Nova Scotia had earlier declared a 'full emergency' and a C-130 search plane headed for the German balloon, located more than 1,350 miles east of Halifax.
The Hercules, a rescue aircraft, reached the balloon and circled overhead, while three vessels were close by and ready to assist. A tanker called the Granite picked up the crew members, Richards said.
The crew members aboard the German balloon were Jochen Mass, a German champion race car racer, Erich Krafft and Uwe Schneider.
Five teams of balloonists lifted off from Maine before dawn Wednesday in the race. The five identical state-of-the-art balloons and gondolas launched just after 3 a.m., each carrying three crewmembers who hope to cross the more than 2,000 miles across the Atlantic to Europe within five days.
The winner will be the first to cross a paved road in Britain or Europe, although one or two of the teams plan to continue on for up to nine days in hopes of setting distance records.
The elite teams represent Holland, Germany, England, Belgium and the United States.
The Chrysler Transatlantic Challenge is an invitation-only race featuring such balloonists as Mass and Richard Abruzzo, 29, the son of Ben Abruzzo -- who with Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman were the first team to cross the Atlantic in their Double Eagle II balloon in August 1978.
All five teams are flying Cameron balloons, which are one-quarter the size of the Double Eagle II. The gondolas are made of newer, lightweight materials. The balloons are two-tiered, with an upper section filled with helium and a lower compartment filled with air. The air is heated with gas burners or allowed to cool as required by outside air temperatures during the day and night.
The balloons were made by Cameron Balloons of Bristol, England, the world's largest manufacturer of hot-air balloons. Its director, Don Cameron, is the lead pilot for Great Britain's crew.
Projected landing sites are anywhere from northern Norway to Gibraltar. More than 100 observers have been organized to chase down and record the time and place of road crossing.
