BARI, Italy (AP) — Race organizers say a pair of American balloonists plunged toward the Adriatic Sea at 50 mph (80 kph) before disappearing from radar screens and likely didn’t survive.
Flight director Don Cameron said Friday that high rate of descent, if confirmed, leads him to be “very pessimistic” about the fate of veteran pilots Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis.
Abruzzo and Davis were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race when contact was lost Wednesday morning in rough weather over the Adriatic Sea.
A statement from the race organizers said: “At this rate of descent to the surface, survival would be unlikely.”
