Word: balloons
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...that is, until last week. At 9:41 on Tuesday morning, a Belarussian helicopter gunship opened fire on a balloon captained by Alan Fraenckel, 55, an airline pilot with TWA, and his partner, John Stuart-Jervis, 68, a retired British pilot who made his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Within seconds they were dead--shot out of the sky over a remote Belarussian forest...
...Their balloon, the D-Caribbean, set out with 14 competitors from seven countries on Sept. 9 from Switzerland, the home of the previous year's winner. Because this would be the first Gordon Bennett race since the end of World War II in which former Soviet airspace would be accessible, organizers had contacted each of the Baltic States as well as Belarus and Ukraine to request permission for the balloons to cross their airspace. Pilots, after all, could not fully control where the winds took them. Having received approval from every government, including Belarus', the balloons ascended from Wil, near...
Belarus claims that information never reached officials at the military base, 100 miles southwest of Minsk, where a blip produced by Fraenckel and Stuart-Jervis' balloon suddenly appeared on radar screens, dangerously close to one of several strategic missile bases that dot the area. Belarussian officials sent two Mi-24 helicopter gunships into the air to investigate. One of the choppers found the balloon, approached within 110 yards and attempted, without success, to establish radio contact. (Race organizers suspect that the pilots were unable to respond because their batteries had gone dead during the three-day flight...
...roughly the same time, the two other balloons over Belarus were confronted in similar fashion; the pilots quickly unfurled flags and were permitted to land. More than 25 minutes of circling Fraenckel and Stuart-Jervis' craft, however, brought no reply from inside the gondola, which was covered with thick canvas. After firing warning shots, the helicopter pilot became convinced that the craft was unmanned. Ordered to bring it down, the chopper fired about 20 bullets, enough to send the balloon and its gondola plunging to the forest below. Belarussian officials then kept silent for 24 hours while they sifted...
...absolutely indefensible." Lukashenko eventually ordered an investigation of the episode and by week's end had invited American officials to participate. That may eventually shed light on who is responsible. But what cannot be explained, or fathomed, is how anyone can shoot down something as harmless as a helium balloon. "This is so senseless," said Ruth Ludwig of the Balloon Federation of America. "It's the most benign thing people can do, floating around...