Solo Balloonist Scraps Global Ride in Myanmar

CHICAGO — Ten days after lifting off at a rock quarry near Rockford, Ill., adventurer Kevin Uliassi on Friday abandoned his attempt to become the first solo balloonist to circle the globe when he made a hard landing in the Asian nation of Myanmar.

Uliassi suffered minor injuries when his 6-foot-long capsule landed, but the 36-year-old architectural engineer is “safe and in good condition,” Todd Little, a spokesman for the expedition, said at the flight command center in Homewood, a Chicago suburb.

Earlier, expedition officials said Uliassi had made a controlled descent. They had few details about why Uliassi had decided to abort the flight of the J. Renee--named after his wife--because the balloon’s communication system was not working.

Uliassi, who set off Feb. 22, traveled 13,235 miles.

The balloon had been tracked as it drifted over Myanmar, formerly Burma, and descended in the central part of the country.

Little said a U.S. Embassy official in the capital, Yangon, telephoned the command center to report that Uliassi had scrapes and bruises and was spending the night in a hospital.