US News
Fossett south of Greenland, on way to UK
Feb 11, 2006, 13:43 GMT
Washington - Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett was on his way Saturday to the UK on the last leg of his attempt to complete the world's farthest-ever flight, despite earlier fuel problems.
The 61-year-old US businessman was reported Saturday morning to be flying over the Atlantic south of Greenland. On Friday he spent much of the day over the southern United States and the Gulf Coast before reaching open water again off Florida.
He is charted to complete a second Atlantic crossing and fly over Ireland to a landing Saturday evening at Britain's Kent International Airport, 120 kilometres east of London.
If successful, Fossett will have spent at least 80 hours in his ultra-light aircraft to break the 1986 record for the farthest flight, set at 40,212 kilometres by pilots Dick Rutan and Jeanne Yeager.
Fossett took off Wednesday from Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He has already crossed the North Atlantic, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Japan, the Pacific and the southern United States.
Fuel shortages have made the Atlantic crossing risky but mission control said that the lack of tailwinds was working in Fossett's favour. Mission control chief Kevin Stass, monitoring the flight from St. Louis, Missouri, said 'we're cautiously optimistic.'
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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