Madrid/London - A Swiss "Rocket Man" who crossed the English Channel using a jet-propelled wing failed to make his first intercontinental crossing from Morocco to Spain on Wednesday. Yves Rossy, 50, was forced to ditch into the sea, BBC reported.
Organizers attributed the failure to wing malfunction, and said rescuers were taking Rossy to hospital for a routine check-up.
Rossy leaped from a plane above Tangier in Morocco in order to fly from Africa to Europe with a jet-powered wing strapped to his back.
He had been expected to take about 13 minutes to fly 38 kilometres from Tangier to Atlanterra on the Spanish coast.
But about 15 minutes after he took off, organizers wrote on a website that he appeared to be in the sea.
Known as the Jet Man, Rocket Man and Fusion Man, the airline pilot made history in 2008 by crossing from Calais to Dover by jet wing in 15 minutes.
Propelled by four simple jet turbines, Rossy's carbon fibre wing with a two-metre wing span can reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour.
"The main challenge of this flight is to achieve that a human being like me adapts to the elements" despite the "many complicated air currents in the Strait of Gibraltar," Rossy told Spanish media prior to the flight.
