Balloonists Land on Rocky Isle in Racing Triumph

PALM SPRINGS — The pilot and co-pilot of the Rosie O’Grady, which floated perilously for hours above a jagged island in the Gulf of California, landed safely Tuesday and were declared winners of the annual Gordon Bennett Balloon Race.

With only moonlight to guide them, Joe Kittinger and Sherry Reed, both of Orlando, Fla., touched down at 3:43 a.m. on the Mexican island of Angel de la Guarda, race spokeswoman Mildred Brodbeck said.

“The island is nothing but rocks, cactus and snakes,” said Sean Fisher, spokesman for Kittinger’s ballooning company in Orlando. “But they’re OK.”

Rescue Effort

A team from Kittinger’s Rosie O’Grady’s Flying Circus was headed from San Diego to a fishing village on the mainland in a rented airplane and hoped to charter a boat to rescue the balloonists, Fisher said. The crew’s radio was not strong enough to reach beyond the local area, but they were in touch with chase planes nearby after landing, Fisher said.

A Coast Guard jet summoned by a distress call monitored the balloon’s landing and dropped a life raft and emergency supplies, said Petty Officer Brad Smith in Long Beach.

The crew traveled a straight-line distance of 353.4 miles from the start in Palm Springs to defeat six other balloon teams.

The balloons, each carrying two people, floated aloft late Sunday and early Monday, and all but the Rosie O’Grady had landed at scattered spots across Southern California and Baja California by Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday, veteran balloonist Ron Clark recalled the landing that ripped the balloon Benihana and left Clark and pilot Rocky Aoki shaken but uninjured.

They were approaching the Mexican border about noon Monday, and had decided to touch down inside the United States because they lacked enough ballast to continue the race, Clark said. They had to dump sandbags to get the balloon to clear a ridge and then, on the far side of the ridge, unexpectedly hit shifting winds up to 40 knots.

“We almost hit the ridge,” Clark said. “Then the gondola hit and we ended up dragging about 100 yards through this scrub oak.”

The balloonists ducked inside the balloon’s waist-high wicker gondola, and emerged without a scratch, even though the balloon’s heavy vinyl envelope was ripped open.

“We were very worried, but we didn’t have time to get scared,” Clark said.

Aoki, a restaurateur and thrill-seeker who holds the Gordon Bennett distance record with a 1981 flight of 1,347 miles, probably will have a repair bill of $5,000 for the $35,000 balloon, Clark said. Benihana covered 85.4 miles to claim fifth place.

Other Finishers

Finishing second was Wandering Star, piloted by Fred Hyde and M. Neal, which set down near Rancho Bahia, Mexico, 246.9 miles from the start.

Next came Moonshadow with Randy Woods and Fred Gorrell, landing near Rio Del Mayor, Mexico, 149.3 miles out; Windsong with Don Davis and Gordon Boring, near El Alamo, Mexico, 148.7 miles; Cherokee with Jim Jones and Dale Yost, near El Cajon, Calif., 74.9 miles, and Destiny with Fred Krieg and M. Hendricks, in Riverside, 41.8 miles.

The winners will be announced officially Saturday night during a “Survivor’s Banquet” and will receive a trophy designed by Los Angeles Times editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad, Brodbeck said.