Around the world in 11 days: Russian balloonist breaks record

A 65-year-old Russian adventurer was slowly coming back to earth in the Australian Outback on Saturday after claiming a new world record for flying solo around the world non-stop in 11 days.

Fedor Konyukhov demonstrated precision navigation of his 56-metre-tall helium and hot-air balloon by returning to Australia directly over the west coast city of Perth, then over the airfield at the Australian town of Northam, 96km to the east by road, where he began his journey on July 12, support team member Steve Griffin said.

American businessman Steve Fossett also started from Northam to set a record of 13 days and eight hours for his 33,000-km journey in 2002.

Konyukhov, a Russian Orthodox priest, has taken a longer route and roughly 11 days and six hours to complete the circumnavigation.

Crews in six helicopters were following the 1.6-tonne balloon inland to and help him land somewhere along a 500km sparsely populated Outback expanse between Northam and the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie.

“We’ve got to keep him up a bit longer because there’s quite a bit of wind on the ground here,” Griffin said from Northam.