12 February 2006
Congratulations to Steve Fossett, who has broken the world record for the longest ever flight in history following a dramatic landing at Bournemouth Airport. He travelled 26,389.3 miles and had a flight duration of 76 hours 45 minutes. Just miles from his destination at Manston in Kent Steve’s generator failed, which meant a total electrical breakdown.He was forced to declare an emergency and divert to Bournemouth Airport.
The major problem occurred just after Richard Branson had called to congratulate him on his world record, which he actually broke when be flew over Shannon after covering the 26,000 miles required. Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic, Steve Ridgeway said ‘If we didn’t get him down in fifteen minutes, he would have had to have ditched the plane.’
On landing, Steve burst two tyres, and his windscreen was iced up so much that he couldn’t see even metres in front of him. Not only all that, but he had only 200lbs of fuel left; which if he had continued may well have turned into another emergency!
