US balloonist Fossett close to Chile coast

US balloonist Steve Fossett is on course to reach the Chilean coastline within days, and had completed more than a third of his…

US balloonist Steve Fossett is on course to reach the Chilean coastline within days, and had completed more than a third of his trip around the world.

Mr Fossett is attempting to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a hot-air balloon.

His mission control at Washington University in St. Louis said that at 11.30 GMT today the pear-shaped, silver-coloured balloon, Solo Spirit, was about 560 kilometers (350 miles) west of Easter Island, on its fifth day over the South Pacific.

It was averaging a speed of 84 kilometers (53 miles) per hour, at an altitude of some 6,000 meters (20,000 feet), in favorable weather conditions, it said.

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Mr Fossett took off from Northam, in western Australia, on August 4th.

It is his fifth solo balloon flight of more than 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) since February 1995 - when he became the first balloonist to complete a solo crossing of the Pacific.

Mr Fossett's trip around the world is expected to take 15 to 18 days.

AFP