06. 03. 99
Permission refused to fly over military zone in Yemen

The log book

20:00 GMT: The Breitling Orbiter 3 has finally received the authorisation to fly over the northern edge of the Yemenite military area which was originally forbidden. It is flying towards the triple point between the North of Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia. 16:30 GMT: Breitling Orbiter 3, is currently flying over Saudi Arabia at 5600 meters (approximately 17’000 feet) a little faster than 90 km/h, about 500 kilometers South East of Mecca. The balloon should reach the triple point between the North of Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia tomorrow morning around 5 am GMT. A little bit later than expected, as the balloon had to slightly deviate from its route, due to a last minute interdiction to overfly a military zone in northern Yemen. Breitling Orbiter 3 flew over the Red sea as dawn rose and then over Saudi Arabia. The pilots had to use the winds at different altitudes to manoeuver the craft around a no-fly zone above the Aswan Dam wall (in Egypt), before modifying their trajectory on a more northern route in order to avoid the no-fly zone in Yemen. However, the craft will recuperate the time lost within the next 48 hours and join its original path again. Tomorrow, Breitling Orbiter 3 will leave momentarily the lower part of the jet stream and descend once more to 3000 meters or so, in order to melt the 200-300 pounds of ice that has formed on the envelope. It will then cross over the Arabian sea, and aim South East under the 16 parallel and Bhutan. The crew have now finished all their fresh food, much of which had been carefully prepared and packaged for them in Château d’Oex. Bertrand had resquested Emu, Brian went for fillet steak. They also took with them vegetables and fruit, plus cheese and bread. From now on they will mainly be eating dehydrated food prepared with hot water. The stow away on board has now been found and taken care of. Bertrand Piccard managed to kill the mosquito, which will therefore not become the first insect to fly around the world. So far, Breitling Orbiter has flown more than 8500 kilometers since take-off in Château d’Oex, on Monday. 09:30 GMT: Yemen has strictly forbidden Breitling Orbiter 3 to overfly their military zone, in the northern part of the country. The balloon will have to modify its path and climb to 7000 meters, in order to catch different winds. This will not cause a delay in the flight plan predictions.