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TOKYO: Supporters said Monday they were praying for the safety of a Japanese balloonist who lost contact three days ago over the Pacific Ocean on a bid to break his own record for the longest journey.
Local government employee Michio Kanda, 58, lost contact Friday, one day after setting off on his 9,000-kilometre (5,580 mile) journey to North America that was expected to take him about 60 hours.
"We still don't have a clue on his whereabouts," said Toshitsugu Ichihara, one of Kanda's supporters.
Ichihara and other supporters of the adventurer have stayed at Kanda's home in suburban Tokyo, gathering fragments of information on Kanda and praying for his safety, he said.
The US Coast Guard has been dispatched from Alaska to search for him in the Pacific Ocean, Ichihara said.
"But the area they have to search for him is so vast," he said. "We are just waiting for information, praying for his safety."
Kanda, who has been ballooning for 30 years, set the record of 50 hours and 38 minutes in the air after leaving Calgary in Canada and landing in the tiny town of Jordan in the US state of Montana in 1997.
If successful, his latest flight may also break the record for the longest distance travelled in a hot-air balloon at 7,672 kilometres, set in 1991 by Virgin executive Richard Branson, the Japan Balloon Federation said.
Kanda's balloon Starlight, which measures 45 metres by 50 metres (149 feet by 165 feet), is the biggest in the world and the second biggest in history, according to the federation.
But he lost communication without releasing rescue signals on Friday, the supporter said.
The balloon, equipped with a satellite phone and a global positioning system, has no propulsion system so Kanda is depending solely on jet streams to blow him across the Pacific. - AFP/ac
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