ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Feb. 2 U.S. Coast Guard ships searched Saturday for a hot air balloonist who vanished during a flight from Japan to the United States.
Michio Kanda, 58, was trying to break his 1997 world record when he disappeared en route from Tochigi, Japan, to Portland, Oregon, the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News reported Saturday.
Kanda was reported missing after he failed to check in with his support crew by satellite telephone late Thursday after lifting off from Japan late Wednesday, the BBC reported.
Kanda hoped to surpass a long-distance world record of 4,767 miles and his own 1997 duration record of 50 hours, 38 minutes from Alberta, Canada, to Montana, the BBC reported, noting the flight from Tochigi to Oregon is nearly 5,600 miles and estimated to take 60 hours.
Kanda's hot-air balloon should have been within range of U.S. radar stations on the West Coast if still aloft, the BBC said. He last checked in with his support team Thursday morning.
Copyright 2008 by UPI
