News - Local
Search for missing Colorado balloon pilot intensifies
Posted: Sep 30, 2010 8:58 AM by Bea Karnes, News First 5
Updated: Sep 30, 2010 9:00 AM
The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center has expanded its search for two American balloonists who disappeared in rough weather over the Adriatic.
The search for balloon pilots Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis, of Colorado, extended to 14 miles off the Italian coast as it resumed for a second day Thursday.
Flight director Don Cameron says five boats, several aircraft and a helicopter were involved.
Abruzzo and Davis were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race, in which teams try to fly the farthest on a maximum of 35,300 cubic feet of gas.
Contact with the pair was lost Wednesday morning. The balloon was equipped with a satellite telephone, VHF radios, radar transponder and two mobile telephones.
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