Don't Look Down (2016) - full transcript

[Man on radio]
G heli?

[Man #2 on radio]
This is g heli.

Would all aircraft
now please clear

to the west
of the balloon?

To the west of
the balloon.

[Newsroom chatter]

[Woman]
...Did touch down in
the water at one point

right on the coast
of rana, Norway.

[Woman #2]
...Towards Scotland,

and per and Richard
are inside the capsule.

There have been
reports on CNN



that they parachuted
and whatnot,

but it's not true.

[Man]
They have relayed
word to US

that both the pilots...

[Man #2]
...No circumstances

let anybody fly
beneath the balloon.

[Man #3]
It was supposed
to be the first ever

transatlantic flight
in a hot air balloon,

and it almost made it.

[Man #4]
They did parachute...

[Richard Branson]
I found myself in the biggest
balloon ever built, all alone.

My fellow balloonist
had jumped.

[Man]
...Networks have been saying
that one's missing.

[Richard]
I really thought
that we'd lost him.



I never saw my life
flash before my eyes.

It was just one
of extraordinary loneliness,

extraordinary sadness.

I'd had an extraordinary life,
and it looked like

this was the last
two or three minutes of it.

I wrote a note to the kids,

telling them how much
I loved them,

and then I prepared
to jump.

[Man on radio]
There's a body in the water.

A body in the water.

[Richard]
One day I'm in Puerto Rico.

I'm trying to get to
the British Virgin Islands.

I was 28 years old.

I had a beautiful lady
waiting for me that night.

It's 6:00 pm, and
American airlines decide
to cancel the flight.

So I went to the back
of the airport,

and I managed
to hire a plane,
borrow a blackboard--

wrote just as a joke,
"virgin airlines,

one way to
the Virgin Islands,
$39.00."

I went around to
all of the people
in the airport

and somehow filled
my first plane.

And when I got to
the British Virgin Islands,

a man said, "sharpen up
the service a bit

and you could be
in the airline business."

The next day
I rang up boeing,

and asked if they had any
secondhand 747s for sale.

They asked
what company I ran.

I said,
"a company called virgin.

We have the sex pistols,
we have the rolling stones."

And they said they'd
send a salesman,

but they did say that,
with a name like "virgin,"

they just hoped the airline
would go the whole way.

It was the hardest
four months of my life.

I mean, we had to start
an airline from scratch
in four months

in order to get the revenue in
to help fund the bills.

[Chris moss]
I was constantly seeking ways
of promoting the airline.

I was absolutely passionate
we had the best airline
in the world,

but frustrated as hell

because I had
the marketing budgets

of 1% of everyone else.

The only thing I could do
was out-publicize them,

and that meant
rethinking the way things
had been done before.

[Richard]
I knew that I just
had to use myself

to get virgin on the map,
get the brand out there,

and get US on the front pages,
rather than, you know,

a little anecdote
on the back pages.

[Ted koppel]
Bad weather at sea was
at least partly responsible

for a failed attempt at
the fastest ever sea crossing
of the Atlantic.

A British millionaire
was behind the effort,

and as abc's
Mike Lee reports,
it almost worked.

[Mike Lee]
It had all begun
with high hopes Monday

as the virgin Atlantic
"challenger" left
New York harbor.

Her owner, the aviation and
record industry millionaire
Maverick Richard Branson,

was determined to regain
for britain

the coveted
blue ribbon trophy.

Richard Branson's made a career
out of breaking tradition.

He has his own record company.

He runs
a one-airplane airline,

and has a flair
for self-promotion.

Only two hours away from setting
a new transatlantic record,

there was a distress signal,
and then this.

The crew took to life rafts,

were rescued
by a cargo ship,

and then airlifted
to a British island.

Branson and his crew
are tonight safe and sound,

but determined to try again.

Well, I would never have
gone anywhere near--

near another motorboat
if we had got the record.

[Mike Lee]
But he didn't this time,

and the blue ribbon record
still belongs to america

and to the tradition
of the big ship.

[Per lindstrand]
I was thinking about

the transatlantic concept
from the very early days
of ballooning,

probably from the late '70s.

The Atlantic has
always been a battleground
for new technology,

be it airplanes,
be it air ships,
or be it the blue ribbon.

My relationship with virgin
started with the balloon

with the 747
intersecting the envelope.

I designed it, and I tried
the various airliners,

and they weren't really
interested,

but I thought virgin
was very much

more aggressive
on the p.R. Side.

So I sent it to virgin, and
they said "yes, I love it."

[Crispin Williams]
I was working for
thunder & Colt,

lindstrand was the star.
It was his business,

and he drove everything
that happened there.

Charismatic person,
made his own decisions,

listened to very few people,

and then ignored them
afterwards.

[Chris]
Per was an amazing engineer.

He absolutely knew his
hot air balloon technology.

He loved to try
doing new things,

and was always trying
to push the envelope

that little bit further.

We'd had lots of visits
to per lindstrand's factory,

and one day we'd gone back
for tea, as you do,

and I just mentioned
in conversation,

you know, "what's the biggest
balloon you've ever built?"

[Per]
At that time I had
all the drawings

for the Atlantic crossing
on my desk,

the asked me what it was,
and I said,

"it's a plan I have
to cross the Atlantic
in a hot air balloon."

[Chris]
You could hear the pennies
dropping, click, click.

Could it be red?

Yes, of course it could.

With a white logo on?
Yes, definitely.

Chris said,
"that would be just what
Richard would love to do."

[Chris]
And I wrote down all the reasons
why we shouldn't do it--

we might close the airline,
we could lose our jobs,

we might kill Richard--
and at the end of it,

that list was quite short,
and the list of all
the reasons to do it--

the adventure,
the challenge,

yes, the publicity,

all the things that
came along with it--

it just seemed to be too big
a list not to do it.

Chris said, "well, let's wait
and see if Richard's boat
comes home this time.

If it does, I'm sure
you'll get a phone call."

[Radio announcer]
Only about a quarter
of a mile to go!

[Crowds cheering]

50 more yards to go!

Challenger, challenger...

Congratulations.

[Cheers and applause]

[Chris]
Somehow the British public
like an underdog--

they don't necessarily
like a smart arse who's
always successful first time.

[Richard]
I don't think I was aware
of the possibility of doing

the balloon adventure
until almost days after

we successfully brought
the blue ribbon back
to the UK.

And I think at that stage
we were exhilarated,
on a high, excited.

So when Chris and per
came to my boat,

maybe I was already looking
for a new adventure.

I was certainly nervous.

I remember asking him

whether he had any family,
whether he had children.

That was the only thing
he asked about my personality
at the time.

But Richard has the ability
to instantly take a liking or
a disliking to something.

Within 45 minutes,
he said, "yes, let's go."

Richard's words were
"fucking hell, let's do it."

Fuck it, I've never flown
a balloon before.

I can-- I've got
some work to do.

[Per]
To fly across the Atlantic,

with one pilot, with a risk
of three, four days in the air

is completely mad.

[Richard]
Per obviously was the
experienced balloonist,

so the first thing
I had to do was to learn
to fly a balloon.

-What time's it now?
-Ten past 9:00.

Do you think it'll
be all right by 10:00?

-Mm.
-It's good?

I think it'll be
inflated by 10:00.

We can get the big
balloon up today?

Yeah, we should be.

[Robin batchelor]
I knew per lindstrand,

and it was per lindstrand
that asked me

to teach Richard Branson
how to fly a balloon.

I certainly wasn't
a very good instructor.

I knew how to fly balloons,

but instructing
is an art,

and I hadn't really
perfected it.

You know, it's a lot of fun.

[Men talking indistinctly]

Remember, it's gonna be
a lot lighter,

-because I won't be in it.
-It certainly is.

See you later.
Bye.

[Whooshing]

[Robin]
Richard,
he was a clever guy.

He quickly understood
what was needed,

but he is Richard Branson,
and he's promoting
virgin airlines.

He'd injected a serious
amount of money in this

with lots of naughts
on the end.

The road's that way,
Richard!

Don't go too far!

He wanted to look good,

and he very much wanted
to be a co-pilot.

[Richard]
I saw this as an incredible
personal challenge,

and threw myself 100%
into doing it.

It's just wonderful to be
able to get away from it all,

to be powered only by where
the wind wants to take you.

That's one of the best days
of my life.

[Robin]
Richard, with
the greatest respect,

had nowhere near the experience
to be a useful co-pilot.

[Men yelling indistinctly]

The rip!
Pull the rip--

entirely--
go ahead, pull the rip!

And I should have had
a lot longer to teach him.

[Announcer]
Following many months
of planning,

designing and preparing
for this adventure,

the virgin transatlantic
balloon challenge

is ultimately
in the hands of the pilots.

Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome
the two crew members,

per lindstrand
and Richard Branson.

[Per]
As we walked into
the press conference,

I felt "this is my dream.

My dream to fly
the most complex balloon
system in the world,

and here we are,
in front of the world's press."

One of the most perilous
times is actually inflating
the balloon.

I mean, you're inflating
something three-quarters
of the size

of Wembley football pitch,
or bigger than the Albert hall.

It's going to need
absolutely perfect conditions.

I mean, altitude attempts
in the past have often
come to grief,

just in the inflation
process.

[Camera shutters clicking]

It was a project that
nobody outside the factory
thought would succeed.

They were going to take off
in this balloon,

and then go up to
25,000, 30,000 feet.

They were going to get into
the current of the jet stream

and everybody thought that
this was an impossibility.

There was a whole new world
to adventure.

No one had ever been
in a sustained flight in
the jet stream before.

The jet stream
is like a wind current

that goes typically between
30,000 to 35,000 feet.

It's very dangerous
when you go into the jet,

that on the top of the balloon
you have 120 knots

and the bottom
you have zero knots,

and you can literally tear
the balloon to pieces.

And this was one of
the occasions that he took
absolutely no advice.

He said, "no,
this is gonna work.

We can build a balloon
this size,

probably five times as
large as any balloon that'd
ever been built before.

We're going to use
insulation technology

inside the balloon
to retain heat."

[News announcer]
The virgin Atlantic flyer
will fly so high

the gondola
will be pressurized,
just like a jumbo jet.

[Crispin]
I think that most
people would have said

that the probability of
killing themselves on this

was somewhere
around about 20%,

and I would've thought
it was probably a little bit
larger than that.

[Richard]
If you have a catastrophic
failure at 35,000 feet,

the only way you're going
to be able to survive

is to skydive
from 35,000 feet...

Because if you open
the parachute
at that height

with the very thin air,
the parachute would rip off.

So we had to learn
to skydive to make sure
that we could get down

to 8,000 feet before
opening the parachute.

As the plane climbed,
you know, I must admit

I could feel
my stomach churning.

As a child I would
have recurring dreams

that I could flap my arms
and fly.

And then suddenly
forget to flap my arms
and start falling,

falling,
falling to the ground.

On the right hand side
of my body there were
two handles.

One opened the parachute,
the other one got rid of
the parachute.

Pulling the one that
got rid of the parachute

obviously could
have been fatal.

The second I was out,
I felt fantastic.

I mean, you know,
I was flying.

I remember looking to my right,
to the instructor
on my right,

As I moved my hand down,
he was saying, "no,"

which I couldn't quite work out
why he was saying no,

and I looked to
the instructor to my left,

and he was saying, "yes."

Instructor on my right
was saying, "no."

Instructor on my left
was saying, "yes."

And I don't know, somehow
I think I got on better

with the instructor
on my left, so third time

I pulled the lever that
got rid of the parachute,

not the lever that opened
the parachute.

One of the instructors
managed to yank
my spare parachute.

[Per]
He was really shaken up.

He felt that, "if I'm ever
in a situation like that,

I'm gonna kill myself."

[Joan templeman]
The only time I ever
really saw him scared

was when he skydived and
he pulled the wrong cord.

When he come home that day,
I just had a look at his face

and I said,
"what's happened?"

He just looked really,
like, ill,

like that white pallor
in his skin.

I think he got
a serious fright.

When I was told
about balloons,

I think I was probably
not very happy about that.

Richard likes new things.

He would just think,
"okay, I want to do this."

Stop him?

No.

I might say, "if you do that,
it's not gonna make me
very happy,"

but I would never
try and stop him.

Can't stop people from doing
what they want to do,

but I did say to him,
"if anything happens to you,

I will not come
to your funeral."

[Radio static]

[Female newscaster]
The pop music millionaire
and adventurer

is almost ready
for his latest challenge.

[Male newscaster]
It is now an early
Monday evening

outside the sugarloaf inn
at the base of sugarloaf, usa,

and we are joined
with per lindstrand
and Richard Branson.

[Eve Branson]
Well, you can't believe
your little boy

is gonna go off
in a balloon,

and the whole thing seemed
so remotely possible,

but that's Richard.

We had to just accept it.

My husband was terrified,
but I just couldn't
think that way,

because I think
I would've quite liked to do
a lot of it myself.

[Richard]
My mother had
enormous expectations.

Even before I was born,
my mum had booked prime
ministership for her son.

I think I soon realized
that if I was to satisfy
her wishes for a son

that I had to do some
pretty extraordinary things
in my life.

[Man]
What did you think when
you first heard about it?

He had promised US he wouldn't
do anything else crazy.

And he said,
"just one more thing,"
so this is the last.

He mustn't do
anything more now.

6,000 feet.

5,000 feet.
Still time.

[Richard]
Being dyslexic--
it's fascinating,

actually,
when I think about it.

I mean, I would look at
an IQ test at school,

and I would get nothing right,
nothing.

There were certain things
I had to be really careful of.

I mean, like, I went
into the balloon,

and, you know, there
were a lot of levers.

I mean, I would have to,
you know, like,

make sure there
were big signs saying
"do not pull this lever

'cause it separates the balloon
from the capsule."

All right, have I given that
long enough, ten seconds?

[Man]
Yes, sir.

[Mike Kendrick]
Richard likes adventure.

He likes publicity.
He knows how to get it.

And so everything
that Richard does,

in terms of the ballooning
and the boats,

is calculated on one,
he wants to do it himself--
personal satisfaction.

B, it has to be
justified by the media
and by the publicity.

[Men speaking indistinctly]

[Richard]
Whoops, hello.

-[Man] Just like that.
-[Richard] There I go.

Bit of artistic
license here.

[Mike k.]
He has great faith
in other people.

If he believes in someone,
and he believed in per,

he has great faith in them.

Misplaced, in my view.

I first got involved with,
if you like, high-technology
ballooning

through a project
called operation sky quest.

Per lindstrand and I
were trying to get to
the edge of space

about 80,000 feet.

We spent a long time
training for this flight.

One of the first rules
in ballooning

is "never let your feet
get off the ground unless
you're in the basket."

Not even an inch.

And for some
unaccountable reason,

when we were inflating
sky quest, per hung on
to the ground line

and went up in the air.

[Air rushing]

It was only about
15, 20 feet,

but it damaged him
quite seriously

and put the project
back by over a year.

It makes you look ridiculous.

I mean, isn't it
bloody obvious that
you don't do that?

That is what you face
when you're trying to break
records in balloons.

The opportunity for
embarrassment is always there,

and it will always
catch you out.

[Chris] It's very easy
when you start a project
to think about the prize.

The prize of being
the first to ever fly
the Atlantic

in a hot air balloon
was fabulous,

but the risks,
as you got closer
and closer to it,

you saw the capsule
sitting there,

with these massive
gas tanks around it.

And these were all bombs,
in effect.

They were full
of liquid propane,

so if one
dropped off and split,

with a hot air balloon
it would make a hell of a mess.

It drove it home to me
that he was risking his life

and we were putting
his life on the line.

Come on, come on down,
we'll tell you and
let you know.

It was very difficult,
because this wasn't the boss.

This wasn't some bloke
you worked for.

This was a mate.

He's really good at keeping
a smile on his face,

but you can also see that
this is a little scary.

[Eve]
His whole upbringing
was to think of other people.

He wasn't allowed to be angry,
he wasn't to be jealous.

Fear wasn't allowed.

All those things
had to be squashed.

I don't think that's
a terrible thing.

Do children express their
feelings all the time?
No, they don't.

I don't think so.
They keep it to themselves.

[Per]
Tom barrow was crew chief.

He was good at
keeping things together.

He was a people man,
not a technology man.

He was aware of the dangers.

[Richard]
One night in Maine,
Tom barrow sat me down

and told me of the extreme
dangers that I was going into,

and he said that,
"you do realize that
six people

have tried to fly
across the Atlantic.

Five have perished,
and it's not too late
to back out."

Tom was concerned whether
per would put himself first
in a crisis situation.

Slightly unsettling
conversation to have,

with the person in charge
of the whole project
warning me against it.

And sometimes in situations
like that,

it's more courageous
to say no than it is
to say yes.

But I felt that
per and I would look out
for each other.

[Chris]
The actual launch becomes

almost a series
of trigger points,

a bit like
a NASA launch.

We had a time schedule.
There was an optimum
time to go.

I could see the lights
of the police vehicle
flashing outside.

I'm quite good with lists,
so I went through my list

to make sure that I had
everything that I needed,

went through all
the gear again,

made sure I put
the parachute on right.

Per and I went out
into the car.

[Man on radio]
On the site in one hour,
over.

[Richard]
I remember thinking,
"this just feels like

a flight that's about
to go to space."

[Man on radio]
This is going
to all the guys--

be aware the explosive bolts
and cutters are now connected.

[Man on radio #2]
All people, stay behind
the barricades.

[Sirens wailing]

[Richard]
We came around the corner,

and there was
this magnificent balloon.

Just gigantic.

That is the moment,
the first time you see
the balloon.

I was a bit nervous, would
the crew be able to inflate it
without damaging it

and there it was,
looking absolutely gorgeous.

[Spectators cheering]

[Per]
Okay, Tom.

[Per]
This is your
crowning moment.

This is your day of success.

[Eve] We were allowed
to be the last to
say goodbye to him.

I still had
optimistic thoughts.

My husband,
tears were streaming
down his face.

It's no good
me showing worries,

'cause I've been
bringing him up all his life
not to show his fear.

We fired
the exploding bolts,

and there was
no going back.

Ready?
Three, two, one...

[Richard]
I heard what sounded like
an enormous crash.

It was impossible
to tell straight away
what had gone wrong.

-Ground to per, over.
-Per, go ahead.

Per, you have left behind
on the field fuel tank
number four.

[Richard] To lose
a ton of the fuel before
embarking on the flight,

yes, the balloon
was gonna be lighter,

but it meant
that we were gonna be
a ton less fuel

than we'd actually
planned for.

Not a great start.

[Eve]
They'd barely
left the ground,

but too late, they'd gone.

All my thoughts were
"chase after him, get there
for his landing,

wherever that is.

[Richard]
At 10,000 feet,
per put the door back in.

To our great relief,
the capsule pressurized,

and we prepared ourselves
for entry into the jet stream.

Per was absolutely
convinced that the balloon
would be strong enough

to withstand the sort of
100-mile-an-hour winds.

We kept our parachutes on,
and we headed up tentatively

to about 25,000,
30,000 feet.

Suddenly the top
of the balloon took off,

and started flying at,
you know,

80, 90,
100 miles an hour.

[Rumbling]

It was like someone had
taken the top of the balloon
and dragged it along.

[Richard]
We just were
screaming along,

half in and half out
of the jet stream.

And then, suddenly...

The whole capsule
went into the jet stream.

The shuddering stopped.

The top of the balloon
and the bottom of the balloon

were going at
100 miles an hour each,

and it-- you know,
it was magnificent.

It's remarkable
that you can't tell
what speed you're going,

whether you're going
10 miles an hour or
a thousand miles an hour.

It's beautifully serene.

And as long as nothing
interrupts that Serenity,

there's nothing more magical.

[Per]
Now you're invincible.

All the odds are now
stacked in favor of you.

[Richard]
The next landing place,
hopefully, is Great Britain,

and there's a lot of
water in between.

[Female newscaster]
Well, here at
British telecom,

the London control center,
the tension and excitement

have been mounting
all morning.

We know that the
balloonists have now cleared
the coast of Nova Scotia.

They've got two and a half
thousand miles of ocean
in front of them.

Robin, you're looking
very excited here.
What's going on?

Well, it's exactly 6:22,
and the virgin Atlantic flyer

has just broken the world
distance record for
hot air balloons.

Oh, that's wonderful.

[Robin]
I agreed to report
upon the progress

to various TV stations
and radio stations.

They've made
a cracking start.

You know, we wanted people
to recognize

that this was
an extraordinary adventure,

and all British.

[Man on radio]
And how are you
both feeling, over?

[Richard]
We're both feeling
magnificent,

and it's absolutely
beautiful up here.

We're going
at a tremendous speed.

We're going about
100 knots.

[Man on radio]
The big question,

are you going to make it,
both of you, over.

Ah, I think it's gonna
be difficult to say
until tomorrow morning,

when we can see just
how much we've suffered
from losing the fuel.

We think that if we can
keep up this sort of speed,

this sort of trajectory,
that we have a good chance,

but I think
we'd rather you ask US
this question tomorrow.

At this stage in the trip,
it looked pretty hopeful

that we were going
to be the first people

to cross the Atlantic
in a hot air balloon.

And then, to see
the virgin plane--

one of only two planes
that we had--

flying around US,
was a tremendous feeling.

[Per]
There's the 747,
doing 400 knots around you.

That was a magic moment.

I think for Richard,
that particularly was a moment.

That was his 747,
and that was his 747 fleet

that had financed
the balloon crossing.

[Eve]
I looked out,
and there was the balloon

bouncing around below me,

and that was Richard.

I couldn't think what to say,
so I said,

"go on Richard!
Faster, faster!
I'll race you!"

Because anything to
take your mind off seeing
our little baby

doing these awful things.

We were always with him.

For some reason he seemed
to need my husband and me

to be there,
and we always were there.

[Richard]
The next morning as
the sun starts to come up,

the balloon just decides
on its own

to start, um--
to start rising,

and rising.

It was carrying many tons
of weight at the bottom.

And here it was going up
with no fuel being put
in it at all.

And having to deal with
the look on per's face.

He knew that if it
went up to 40,000 feet,

everything would implode.

It wasn't stopping rising.

A moment ago,
life felt fantastic,

and now it looked like
it was--

you know, it wasn't--

we were potentially
coming to an end.

The only thing
that was gonna stop it

was if we could create
a vent at the top of
the balloon,

and it was only just
after about 40 minutes

that per realized that
the rope was still slack.

Per had his head
in his hands.

He had one hand pressing
the button to try

to open the valve at
the top of the balloon.

As it got closer
to 40,000 feet, it was
getting closer to midday,

and that's when
the sun's hottest.

He gave it one final press,

and the rope
came fully taut...

And opened the vent
at the top.

And it started coming down.

[Male newscaster]
Well, the great adventure
will all be over

in about two hours' time,

but the hard part starts now:
The landing.

Robin, you taught Richard
how to fly this thing.

-Yes.
-And what will be

going through
his mind now, with per?

Well, they are completely
concentrating on the landing.

They've been, if you like,
cruising at 27,000 feet

for 32 hours.

Now they're
learning to fly it.

They're actually writing
the flight manual as they go.

We were making it up
as we went along.

[Newscaster]
How many miles to go?

I would say about 70
before she crosses
the Scottish coast.

-Is the champagne on ice?
-It is, yes it is.

[Per]
We come across the Atlantic.

Our first landfall
would be Ireland,

at which time we get
the weather report saying

that Glasgow, which was
our intended site,

was in fog.

[Richard]
Suddenly we just saw

an enormous amount
of swirling clouds
below US.

That's something you do
not want in a big balloon.

Because the wind
had got up,

we realized that
landing in Scotland--

and it was gonna be
getting dark by then--

was very risky
with three tons
of fuel on board.

So we decided to come down
over northern Ireland

and drop the fuel
on a field and then
to land in the sea.

We came
through the clouds.

A massive downdraft
just took the balloon.

Per immediately
realized the danger

and was just
pumping enormous plumes
of hot air in

just to try to stop US
hitting the ground.

But the balloon was
gonna have none of it.

[Crashing]

It was real scary.

There was a pile of bricks
there and the fuel tank

hit the bricks
and were torn off.

The balloon twisted
and twisted and twisted.

Tanks flying everywhere
and bits flying everywhere,

cables tearing off.

And before I can release
the envelope,

the balloon is up again.

[Richard]
We bounced over this house,

we took off over some
high power cable lines.

My feeling at
this stage was,

we were completely
and utterly out of control,

and that we should set off
the emergency beacon.

Per didn't want to set off
the emergency beacon.

He was a balloon builder,
and I think the last thing
he wanted

anyone to know
was that there'd been
a catastrophic accident.

But as far as I was concerned,
we were flying in a vehicle
that was out of control

and I felt we needed help.

I'll do that straight away.
Thank you very much.

[Robin]
They bounced in Ireland.

They were heading
towards the Irish sea.

It was raining,
it was low cloud.

I couldn't see
how they could safely
land the balloon.

[Richard]
We'd decided,
"let's try to land

right by
the edge of the beach,
just off the island."

We overshot the beach,

and we must've overshot it
by a mile or two.

[Per]
We are fully concentrating
on landing on the water,

cutting
the explosive bolts,

and then inflating the collar
around the capsule

to make it stable
in the water so
it wouldn't roll.

[Man speaks indistinctly
over radio]

[Man #1 on radio]
It's down, it's down.

[Man #2 on radio]
Roger that, copy.

Per threw
the explosive bolt
to get rid of the balloon.

I fired the explosive bolts,
nothing happens.

- It didn't work.
- At that point,

everything went blank.

[Richard] Water was
splashing in through
the top of the capsule.

Per just screamed,
"get out, get out, get out!"

I saw his arse
disappearing through
the top of the capsule.

I scrambled after him.

[Per]
Richard had
his parachute on.

He had a life boat on,
a survival pack,

so he was very clumsy.

[Richard]
The next moment,
he threw himself

off the top of the capsule
into the water.

[Per]
By the time I turned
round in the water,

Richard's at the railing,

and now the capsule had
started to come up again.

[Man on radio]
It's lifted off again.

[Richard]
The balloon soared upwards.

[Man speaks
indistinctly on radio]

[Richard]
I was standing right
on top of the capsule,

looking down at the water.

I thought
that per had died,

because I felt that
he'd thrown himself
from the balloon

at maybe 100 feet.

[Man on radio]
This is g heli.

They have attempted
to land in the water.

Their flotation bags
have blown off

and are no longer
inflated.

I'm in the water,
wearing just nothing
but an overall.

Richard has
the survival kit,
the lifeboat, the life jacket,

and everything on him,
and he's in the capsule.

[Man on radio]
We're going to go up

with them above the cloud.

Do not let any aircraft
beneath it.

We suspect they are about
to do a parachute jump.

That was probably the worst
moment in my entire life,

to see Richard alone in
the world's biggest balloon

disappearing in the clouds.

[Crispin]
The balloon touched down
on the water

just north
of the Irish coast,

then it then went up
to 1,000 feet.

The crew have been seen inside,
and they're perfectly okay.

You mean they've missed?
They haven't made it then?

They've failed to make it
as a transatlantic flight

because they hit the water?

[Crispin]
I think I'll really
pass on that one,

but as far as
I'm concerned, they've
actually passed Ireland.

But you were telling me
earlier if they didn't land

on fresh water or land,
they didn't make it.

[Crispin]
That's quite possible.

We were desperately
trying to find out
what had happened,

because we were ringing,
you know--

we'd heard that it was
somewhere in the sea,

and I got through
to the head honcho of
the royal naval station,

he could report that
both pilots had jumped out
of the balloon,

and they parachuted
into the sea.

I didn't doubt him
for one moment,

so this is what I reported
to television cameras.

We've just heard in
the last couple of minutes

that they have parachuted
out of the balloon

somewhere above
the mull of kintyre.

I'm a balloonist.
I can't think of an
immediate reason why.

Well, we don't have a
whole lot of information

but I'll give you
what I have.

No further information
is to go out.

We didn't really have
enough information.

Military rescue helicopters
have been summoned.

[Chris]
There was a huge
amount of misinformation.

"Both crew are in the water."
"One is swimming for shore."

"They've parachuted out."
"The balloon has taken off."

So many bits of information,
we didn't know what
the truth was.

[Mike k.]
I was at the control tower
in London

when the flight
was nearing the end.

It was shambolic.

Could you stay out
of the control area?

[Mike k.]
No one knew how
to handle the media,

because suddenly
the story was

"we should all stand by
for some bad news."

An historic hot air
balloon voyage

has ended in confusion.

British millionaire
Richard Branson

and his Swedish co-pilot
per lindstrand

were just a few miles
from Scotland

and the end of their
transatlantic crossing,

but just a few minutes ago
the two bailed out over
the Irish sea.

[Crispin]
You simply don't know what
the hell's happening.

It isn't a position
you want to be in
as part of the team

when your two prime guys
have gone missing.

[Newscaster]
The big question is
why this happened.

There was apparently
no advance notice

given by the two men,
and officials here are
absolutely puzzled.

They say there's no logical
reason why they should
have jumped out.

The probability is
that these two guys
have killed themselves.

Really difficult.
And the truth is

very close to that.

[Richard]
I looked down at
the swirling clouds below.

I realized that,
you know, this is
almost definitely the last

sort of five or ten
minutes of my life,

climbed back into the capsule.

I'm just thinking desperately,
trying to think, "is there
another way out?"

Very lonely--
it's the loneliest I've
ever felt in all my life.

I wrote a note
to Holly, Sam, and Joan,

telling them how much
I loved them.

And then climbed
back on to the top
of the capsule, again.

I looked at my parachute
and, um...

Tried to make sure that,
you know, when I jumped

that I pulled the cord
that opened the parachute,

not got rid
of the parachute.

And bizarrely-- I mean,
it's only dyslexics which
will understand this--

you know, still,
my brain was saying,

you know, "are you sure
you've got it right?

Are you sure
you've got it right?"

[Children laughing]

[Richard]
Mum and dad always
brought US up

wanting US to stand
on our own two feet.

We weren't allowed
to watch television.

We had to be out there
doing things.

They would put US on
a bicycle and make US--

aged seven or eight--
ride 60 miles to the seaside.

I remember my mum pushing me
out of the car, aged six,

and about four miles
from my grandmother's house
in Devon,

telling me to make
my own way there.

Many, many years later,
I'm standing on top
of a balloon,

and I was equally desperate
to find my way home.

And I looked out...

And suddenly I just thought,
"fuck it, I've--

i'm-- I've got the biggest
parachute in the world
right above me."

Um...

"What on earth am I doing
thinking of parachuting?

I'll use the balloon
as the parachute."

[Per] By this time
I was having three
helicopters come past me.

I was waving frantically
and they didn't see me.

One lifeboat coming right
from 100 yards

looking dead ahead,
didn't see me either.

The land was only
about three kilometers.

I start swimming,

and I got nowhere.

Then I realized
the tide was going out.

The tide had the same speed
as the swimming.

So after an hour of swimming,
I'm still exactly
in the same spot.

Now it's getting serious.

I started to feel that sense
of heat in the body,

which is the last thing you do
when you freeze to death.

I probably only had about
another 15 minutes to go.

[Richard]
I burnt, in small bursts,

and vented a little bit
of air out of the top.

I came back down
through the clouds.

I suddenly see
a helicopter close by.

[Man on radio]
We are visual
with the balloon.

It's below cloud.

Looks like the balloon's
setting in about 30 seconds.

[Richard]
About 100 foot from the sea,

I give it one more
burst of hot air.

Put my life vest on, climbed
back on top of the balloon.

Stood by the railings
and as the balloon
started to plummet

towards the sea...

I threw myself off of
the side of the railings.

[Man on radio]
He's in, he's in.

[Richard]
As I hit that water,
I fire open the life vest.

I pop back out.

It was one of the best
feelings of my life.

I mean, I remember
that feeling of

getting away
from that monster.

[Man on radio]
There's a body
in the water.

A body in the water.

- [Man #2] Just one?
- [Man] Just one, by there.

[Man #2]
He's kicking his feet.
I think he's okay.

[Richard]
And I remember
that wonderful feeling

of these hands hauling me
into the helicopter.

[Radio chatter]

Roger,
you're loud and clear.

I have one person on board
recovered from the balloon,
Mr. Richard Branson.

Apparently there
is one further person
in the water, over.

[Man #2]
Did you say passenger--

the other passenger's
in the water?

[Richard]
I could overhear
their conversations,

and finding somebody
as it was getting dark
in the Irish sea

was almost impossible.

[Man on radio]
Uh, this is argonaut.

I'm proceeding
to a position

where I believe the balloon
had first hit the water.

That is where the first
person left the balloon

according to
Mr. Branson, over.

[Per]
Eventually, I hear
a helicopter coming

straight towards me,
thank god for that.

But instead of actually
seeing the cable coming
down with a harness,

they start circling me.

I'm thinking,
"what's that idiot doing?"

The rope that the helicopter
had pulled me up with

had completely tangled
by then, so they couldn't
actually heave him up,

and they managed
to get a fishing boat
to get to him.

[Per]
By that time I had taken
my overall off,

and I had just
my underpants on.

So the girl leant me
her yellow sweater

that sort of came here
and came here.

[Richard]
We were united
on the boat,

gave each other
the biggest hug ever.

Richard says to me,
"did you get a bit of water?"

I said, "yes."
He said, "so did I.

It was freezing,
wasn't it?"

I said, "Richard,
how long were you
in there for?"

He said, "two minutes.
How long were you in there?"

I said, "two hours."
"Nah, that's not possible."

Just before we
open the bottles,

we've got one very important
announcement to make,

and that's that
in a large field
in northern Ireland,

there's an extremely
large plow Mark

made by
the gondola of the balloon
where it touched down

before it went
into the water.

[Man]
Hey, all right.

So any doubt about
a world record is gone.

They touched the ground--

[cheers and applause]

[Reporter]
Richard!
Hey, Richard!

[Reporter #2]
This way, Richard!

[Camera shutters snapping]

A lot of people do think

that per
acted incorrectly.

[Richard]
He threw himself
over the back.

[Reporter]
Did he parachute?

No, no, he jumped.

[Mike k.]
It's a bit like the captain

making sure everyone's
off safe and being
the last man off,

and that's what
should've happened.

[Richard]
He panicked somewhat.

He made a bad decision.

But I didn't--
I certainly don't blame him
for what he did.

[Mike k.]
The Atlantic was
a pioneering flight.

They got away with it.

[Eve]
That was pretty horrific.

Naturally I thought,
"that's it, I hope.
That's it."

[Man]
Are you gonna try and
talk him into not doing--

never. He's promised to never
do anything ever again.

[Man]
He's said that before.

[Joan]
And probably that moment,
it made me happy.

I thought he was never
going to do it again,

but I suppose deep down
I didn't believe him anyway.

[Richard]
I sort of felt like
I was now a balloonist,

and I think that
when per suggested

that maybe we should
try the pacific,

I couldn't have imagined
going with anybody else.

I'm just the sort
of person who can't
resist a challenge.

Did I go searching
for it?

I think both per and I went
searching for each other

and we both
wanted to do it.

[Newscaster]
Never one to do
things by halves

or out of the
media spotlight,

Richard Branson's
latest adventure

will have him and
companion per lindstrand

drifting 6,000 miles
across the northern pacific

from Japan to California.

[Reporter]
You told your mother
last time,

"I'll never
do it again, mum."

Did I?
[Laughs]

[Reporter]
Come on.

Uh, it's true, and...

And for about a month,
I actually meant it.

[Will whitehorn]
It's not a coincidence
that we chose to fly

the balloon across the pacific
and do it from Japan,

'cause we were building
the business there.

We were opening
megastores in Japan.

The airline started flying
to Japan in 1989,

and we were looking
at Japanese investments
in virgin Atlantic

as well at exactly
this moment in time.

[Crispin]
Virgin were getting
bigger and bigger,

and I believe that
he was driven to get
into this project

by the PR machine.

[Joan] He has got
very good selective memory
sometimes, Richard.

He'd put all that fear behind
him and just carry on,
like it didn't happen.

[Per]
The pacific is
a unique flight.

In the Atlantic,
you go down,

you have to wait between
six to eight hours and
there will be ship.

You go down in the pacific,
you have to wait for
two to three days

before you get picked up.

[Mike k.]
That kind of failure,

more than seven or eight
hours out of the flight,

it would not be possible
to save their lives.

- Ho hi oh!
- Richard had

a lot of different things
going on his plate
all at one time.

You've got
the mortality factor.

Richard's got
two children.

They're there with him
on the site.

He's thinking about them.

It was a very
nerve-racking time.

I remember a plane
arriving with a whole bunch
of lawyers to sign a will.

And you'd have weather delay
after weather delay
after weather delay.

After three weeks of that,
you begin to take
a bit more risk.

The reason we chose
southern Japan

was because the jet stream
takes off from southern China

and goes over Japan,
and right over to
the United States.

That is the ideal spot.

That evening I was
plotting the pressures,

and the high-pressure area
was still building in,

still hadn't crested
over US yet.

We laid everything out,
in hopes that it would
calm down,

but I mean, you could
watch the fabric fluttering
across the field

as the wind rustled
through it that night.

It was--
it was just not a--
not good.

[Richard]
Is it worth the risk?

Is it worth the risk of one's
children losing a father?

Is it worth the risk of
one's wife losing a husband?

Is it worth the risk of
my parents losing a son?

All these kinds
of questions were
racing through my head.

It would be my dad
that I would find
an excuse to ring up.

He was always
a wonderful listener.

He was also the sort of person
who'd never tell me no.

My mum and dad always
encouraged US to say yes

to pretty well
everything in life.

I think perhaps the only
occasion where he tried to
stop me doing something

was with
the pacific crossing,

and yeah, he told me
it was selfish.

In the end,
for good or for bad,

you know, I decided
to give him a ring

and tell him I'd decided
to press on with it.

Thousands and thousands
of Japanese children
and families

came out to watch it
take off.

I was watching it
with my dad,

and as the balloon
lifted off,

bits of the balloon
started peeling off.

It didn't look good.

When I talked to per,
he indicated that this wasn't

the integral part
of the balloon.

He assured me that we could
still get across the pacific

with the missing panels.

I remember talking to my dad,
and he very quickly said,

"it looks very
integral to me."

[Chris]
From the moment
it was inflated,

there was definitely
more tension.

There doubts in not just
our minds but thunder & Colt's
minds as well.

That was a worry,
because up until that point,

we'd always had
tremendous confidence
in their ability.

[Paul]
The stuff dangling
off the sides,

it didn't look pretty.

But as long as
the integrity of the
balloon was still there,

the weather is still good,
it's up to you.

And then I just backed off.

[Chris]
Just standing there looking
up at the balloon

as pieces started
flaking off,

just didn't feel right.

[Richard]
Suddenly, a giant amount
of the balloon

started collapsing
onto the burners.

The team threw themselves
into putting the fire out,

saving the capsule,
saving the fuel,

and saving all
the people around them.

It was obvious
that this balloon was
gonna go nowhere.

[Paul]
He is very
image-conscious,

and when something
as unpredictable and
as uncontrollable

as ballooning,--
when he has to deal with
something like that,

he does get frustrated.
[Laughs]

And he feels the pressure
on his image to succeed.

[Man] Well, I mean,
it's the situation
of the launch site.

[Per]
The balloon froze
to the ground sheet.

The balloon
taken out of this box,
instantly inflated

and it froze to
the ground sheets,

so when it inflated,
it peeled off the laminate,
the outer skin,

and the outer skin is
what keeps the air in there.

Structurally, she's okay.

She's strong enough to go
across the Atlantic

or pacific or
whatever you want,

but because of
the air holes--

and you can
see the flapping--

we will take
half our fuel away.

[Paul]
It was-- i--
[Sighs]

It still brings tears
to my eyes when I see that.

You know, I can still
see that in my head.

It was just
the perfect night,

and the jet stream
was still perfect,
you know, overhead,

and everything
would have been fine,
but...

When the fabric failed,
it just...

You could just tell
he was angry.

He didn't want to hear
the reasons as to what
was to blame,

because that's what
you pay for when you're
doing something.

You pay for the planning.

[Richard]
We will be back.

I promise you that
we will be back,

and hopefully next time,
we'll have better luck.

[Crispin]
To be in the office when per
came back was a nightmare.

Anybody who spoke to him
got sacked.

We didn't have an office
of very many people,

but I think that
90% were sacked within
three days of his return.

Things calmed down.
They all came back again,

but that's a sign
that you've gone beyond
the stress limit.

I think even if the flight
had been a success,

he would've been
beyond the stress limit,

but this just made it
that much worse.

[Eve]
He was never allowed
to run anybody down,

in front of me, anyhow.

Even now, I never hear him
run anybody down.

What he quietly thinks
is something quite different.

[Will]
Richard is pretty good
as a person

at not blaming
individuals,

but he certainly
blamed process.

[Joan]
I mean, I've been with
Richard a long, long time.

And I understand what
kind of person he is.

He understands what
kind of person I am.

We're both very different
in lots of areas

but fundamentally,
we're probably the same.

Joan has always been
an absolute rock,

through all
these adventures.

I know how foolish
she thinks I've been
on occasions,

and, you know,
somehow we've--
I don't know.

For some reason or other,
she's loved me throughout.

[Cheers and applause]

[Richard]
The least I could so was to

show her how much I loved her
by getting married at the time.

[Joan]
We had a lovely wedding.

It was a perfect day.

Holly was eight,
Sam was four.

I didn't have to say to people,
"I'm Richard's girlfriend"
anymore.

I could say,
"I'm his wife."

I'd left school at 15.
I'd completely failed
at school

in the conventional
schooling sense

and I had a lot to prove,

and I suppose I've spent
quite a lot of my life

trying to prove things
to myself, you know,

prove things to my family,
prove things to my friends.

Per and I had
been through a lot.

We'd both got
lots of faults,

but somehow we were
bonded for life as far as
ballooning was concerned.

If per had given up on me,
you know, like,

"who's this idiot
who's gone and pulled
the wrong cord

and got rid of
the parachute?" Early on--

you know,
he could've done.

I could've given up
on him on occasions.

It's too simple,
I think, just to separate
over things that go wrong.

Things that go wrong
hopefully can bind you
closer together

rather than--
rather than separate you.

Richard is forward, forward,
forward all the time.
No backwards.

I fixed the problem.
I changed the launch site,

improved the quality
of the balloon, and I was
fully confident

that we were in a good
position to do it.

I was full of beans
at the time.

[Mike k.]
Virgin management realized
that they were dependent on

the manufacturers
and the lindstrand crew.

They were beginning
to question whether
they should have someone

with a better understanding
of ballooning to
manage the project.

At the time I was working
with Richard

in launching a balloon
and airship company.

Richard asked me to
get involved with the project
and take an overview on it.

[Richard]
Mike says it how he
believes it to be,

and it's not
my particular approach,

but it was good
to have him around.

The guy is a complete
selfish prick.

He served to cause
a divide between virgin
and my group.

[Crispin]
There was much
more friction.

Virgin were pushy,
more demanding,

more keen to enforce
the contract and make sure

that thunder & Colt
were complying.

There was a lot of business
tension in there

that we hadn't seen
before the Atlantic.

[Mike k.]
I was probably
disliked intensely

by the lindstrand crew,

but that's the only way
we were gonna move forward.

Because--
ahem.

Of the involvement of Richard
as chairman of an airline,

it's very important
that we stay within
the confines of this plan.

Now what we will do if
an emergency is declared--

this is any kind of
an emergency at all--

we will all know that
by the introduction
of a code word

which must absolutely
stay within this room.

We don't want
to write it down.
It's easy to remember.

And the code name
is spanner.

So if we hear, at all,
we're into operation spanner,

then we are into
an emergency situation

that is outside
of our control.

I thought failure
was way up above 90%,

and that was
the scary part.

[Richard]
On the 12th of January,

we were walking
through an airport

and I looked up
at a TV screen.

I could see this body being
winched out of the sea.

And realized that a Japanese
balloonist who'd tried

to beat US to the punch
and take off a couple
of days before US

had perished.

It was an absolutely
sickening feeling.

And you do think,
"this could've been me."

[Eve]
It was pretty
shattering, really.

We thought, "well, perhaps
now he won't do it."

It does make you worry
that somebody's done it,
they haven't succeeded.

[Richard]
It cast a pall over
myself, my parents,

and I think all
the other people
who gathered to fly.

[Mike k.]
Should we take off
in what was basically

a publicity-driven
adventure?

We had responsibilities
to other people.

[Newscaster]
President Saddam Hussein
of Iraq

has said that any
last-minute initiative
to avoid war in the Gulf...

We knew the Gulf war
was likely to take place

within a day or two
of US taking off.

I mean, it was becoming
very, very apparent

that the decision was about
to be made to invade.

But we had
a weather window,

and you know, we weren't
gonna wait for a war,

and we just want--
we decided, you know,
we had the weather window,

we had to go.

[Paul]
When I get to
that field that night,

I said through akemi--
she was my interpreter--

[speaks Japanese]

"Tonight we fly."

[Will]
You get bound up in it.

And it doesn't matter
that self-publicity,

promotion of the company,

thirst for adventure,

that all gets washed
away eventually into

"we've just gotta do this."

[Cheers and applause]

[Per] That was probably
the most amazing take
off that we'd ever done.

That--
that was the best.

Probably one of the happiest
moments of my life,
it really was.

I just remember
staring straight up,
you know,

watching those flames go
until it went out of sight.

I just-- I don't think
I took my eyes off of it.

It was beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.

[Per]
It was a great relief
to be airborne.

Now all the little
problems you've had,

all the different relations,
they're all gone.

All you're thinking about
now is flying.

[Richard]
It was all experimental.

We were test pilots.

We were testing craft
that could only be tested

by actually getting
up there and flying.

[Loud radio static]

[Man on radio,
greatly distorted]

[Loud static]

[Richard]
Per was searching frantically
to work out what was wrong.

And then suddenly
realized that the fuel tank

had actually emptied
much quicker than
he'd thought.

Richard was quite
fixated about the war.

What happened?
Over.

Who attacked who?
Over.

[Richard shudders]

[Man on radio]
It's confirmed.
That's correct, over.

[Per]
I put my head up in
the glass dome at the top.

And I thought,
"that tank is the went one,
that's gone.

And that's gone.

And that's gone,"
and I thought, "shit."

We had lost half
our fuel supply,

about 10 hours
into the flight.

[Man talking indistinctly
on radio]

Simon, this is per here.

I reran the last
30 seconds of footage.

[Mike k.]
His voice was shaking.

We were in
operation spanner.

Our first reaction was
to check on all the assets
that were about in the sea,

and where the ships were.

The priority's now
to get them down in
a controlled manner

as safely as possible
near some ships.

The other thing that
we've got to try and do

is get them down
in daylight.

There were three
or four ships,

but days away
from steaming to them.

So the possibility
of picking them up...

[Scoffs]
Well, there was
no possibility

of picking them up
in a time frame which
they could survive.

We were definitely
looking at a situation

where we might lose them.

With half the fuel gone
after 30% of the distance,

you are basically,
or in theory, doomed.

[Richard, laughing]
Oh, fuck.

[Per]
Richard is an optimist.

He always thinks things
are gonna work out well.

Per's a realist,
and, um,

when he says
there's always a chance,

you know, I know he means
there's no fucking chance.

We've done our calculation
from our plan back at home,

and he says that instead
of having 70 hours duration
of fuel left,

we've got...
Oh, sorry.

Instead of having 80 hours
of duration of fuel left,

we've got about 35.

And people back at base
are trying to work out

whether we have
any chance of reaching
the pacific coast.

So we have a few
headaches ahead.

It might seem ridiculous,
me carrying on filming
at this point,

but there's not much else
that we can do

and in some ways it's...

Quite therapeutic.

They, uh...

Anyway, people back home
will do some calculations
and, uh...

We will, uh, cross fingers
and hope that we can

get as close to the California
coast as possible.

[Mike k.]
We were fearing the worst,

when suddenly,
all communication stopped.

[Radio static]

[Man]
Pacific flyer?
Pacific flyer?

Pacific flyer?
This is thunder base,
this is thunder base, over.

[Mike k.]
Everything had gone dead.

It was a horrible period.

Terrible period.

And it went on for hours.

Is that Honolulu?

Keep them on the line
and tell Bob--

we had no way of communicating
to the outside world,

so it was a very,
very lonely time.

[Mike k.]
I thought there was
a strong possibility

of them being dead.

I had to tell someone that
they'd lost their father

and their husband.
How do you do that?

[Newscaster]
A spokesman for Mr. Branson's
virgin Atlantic

said his balloon's
now expected to crash
within the next 24 hours.

[Joan]
Trevor abbott, at the time,
that worked at virgin,

he came round
to Holland park and said,

"we've lost contact
with the balloon."

I think you're kind of
just dazed.

I think when anybody tells
you something bad like that,

it does take a while
to sink in.

[Rumbling, creaking]

[Richard]
Unlike the Atlantic,
where the horror story

was all encapsulated within
about one hour,

this was a long,
drawn-out fear.

When it's going well,
it's breathtakingly
beautiful,

the spectacular views
you get when you stand up
and look out of the dome.

When it's going wrong,
it feels like the sides
of the capsule

are closing in on you
and it's a pretty dreadful
place to be.

We were as far from land
as anybody is anywhere
in the world,

and we were in a balloon,
and we were in trouble.

Hmm.

I'm too tired.

[Richard]
I think he knew that
he was facing death,

now completely mentally
overwhelmed,

and he collapsed
somewhat.

And it was then that
I suggested to him that
he should have a rest.

And I took over
the flying of the balloon
for many hours.

The only chance we had
was to get right into
the core of the jet stream

and give it the best chance
of getting the speeds that
we would need

to get across the pacific.

It was flying
right in the jet stream.

I remarkably just
started seeing the speeds
going up and up and up.

170, 180, 190, 200.

Almost unheard of.
In fact, it was unheard of.

And it was as if some
friendly force up there

was just picking
our balloon up and
just pushing US along.

I'd been awake
for a long time,

and just closed the eyes
for a few moments.

I could see flashes
of skeletons, bodies,

and a thousand horses pulling
the envelope along

and ripping it to pieces.

Just these horrible
flashes going on.

The brain was desperately
wanting to go to sleep,

and the body was desperately
wanting to go to sleep,

but there was no way
I was going to let it happen.

And suddenly I saw what
looked like chunks of flame

falling all around
the top of the dome.

And for a second
I thought, you know,

I'm beginning to hallucinate
out of tiredness.

And then I realized,
"Christ, we're on fire."

Per immediately sprang out
of whatever was going on
in his head.

The radio suddenly came on.

I heard
"fire, fire, fire."
That's all you can hear.

You could see these lumps
of burning snowballs falling
around the dome.

One lump of that propane
hitting the dome,

which was at -60 degrees,
would've exploded it.

A fire on board a capsule,
oxygen-rich environment,

is, you know,
a death sentence.

The only way you
can kill that fire

is by climbing high enough
to stop it burning.

[Richard]
Per was fantastic.

He knew exactly
what to do.

He just shouted
"burn, burn, burn."

We got up to 40,000 feet,
41,000 feet.

Of course,
we all waited.

The capsule was only certified
for 42,000 feet.

We had to go higher.

That 43 and a half
thousand feet...

We were still in one piece
and the fire stopped.

[Mike k.]
When I actually
spoke to Richard,

I said, "Richard,
where the fuck are you?"

And he said, "I'm over
the pacific in a tin can.
Get me out of here."

[Richard]
Another miracle was the fact
that the radio had come on

just in time to tell US
to drop 20,000 feet

and catch another
jet stream going up north.

If the radio had come on
two hours later,

we would've been back heading
towards Japan again

and facing definite death,

so we were very fortunate.

[Per]
Right, you want good news?

Yeah.

That was
the turning point.

We made landfall
at Juneau, Alaska.

The wonderful feeling,

we could land on the
other side of the rockies.

[Richard]
It was dark,
and we were about to cross

the most inhospitable
mountain range in america.

And I've never felt
so exhilarated in my life.

But you can't land in
the mountains, definitely,

and you can't land
in the dark.

You 100% can't land
in the dark.

[Loud beeping]

[Richard]
We started coming down
the other side of the rockies,

and we came down
to 10,000 feet.

Per asked me to
go up on the roof to
get the safety catches

off the explosive bolts.

I climb up onto the top,

and then move very,
very slowly around
the top of the capsule,

pulling one safety catch after
the other safety catch

and handing them
back to per.

And I count them,
and there's a little
spike I hang them on,

count them twice,
make sure they're all off.

[Richard]
Looked ahead and saw
millions of acres of trees,

and then suddenly saw
a lake coming up ahead.

[Per]
He climbs back in again,

and, um, I aim
for that lake.

[Richard]
And this is where per's
lifetime of skills

of being one of
the greatest balloonists,

if not the greatest
balloonist alive,
came into being.

Throw myself
back in the seat,
buckle up,

and brace myself
for the landing.

[Loud crashing]

The explosive bolts worked.

We ground to a halt.

The balloon disappeared
from the capsule and landed
in some nearby trees.

This is, um, half an hour
or so after the event.

And we're sitting
somewhere in the tundra.

We set off various
emergency beacons

and tried to get
in touch with people
to say that we're okay.

Actually the landing
was positive.

Firm, decisive.

Accurate.

Memorable.
Intense.

And there aren't too many
people who have landed

the world's biggest balloon

and then can laugh about it
30 seconds later.

[Both laugh]

[Richard]
We'd crossed the pacific.

We were, you know,
the first to do so,

but most important of all,
we were alive.

There was no one with any
experience on the project,

because there was
no one in the world
with any experience.

Look at the landing.

He's got the world's
biggest balloon.

He lands it at about
1,200 feet a minute.

Which was a bit of a smack,
but per,

he's a brilliant person
to do that, he really is.

We broke all kinds
of records.

I mean, the records
are there for the public
to look at,

and we had very little
coverage whatsoever.

The whole world was focused
on Iraq and Kuwait,

and we were just
some little side note,

you know, at the bottom
of the newscast.

And it was just
a shame to have such
a monumental event

go for naught, and
I'm sure Richard was deeply
disappointed by that.

[Richard]
Obviously, if we're going
to do a great adventure,

we'd like to get the brand
on the map.

But when you're facing death,
you realize

that these things
are not that important,

in fact,
not important at all.

[Per]
You want to become famous
for being an explorer,

you have to take the risk,
that's part of the game.

And Richard was prepared
to take that risk.

[Richard]
There is a danger that by
having that positive attitude

to life that at some stage
it could go horribly wrong.

But life is short anyway
and I think if I don't end up
dying in my bed,

but I end up dying on
one of those adventures,

I think I would've lived
a much Fuller life for it.

[Per]
As Napoleon said when he
recruited the field marshal,

"never mind your background
and your experience,
but are you lucky?"

And if you want to describe
Richard, he's lucky.