RESCUED BALLOONIST PLANS REST STOP.

Byline: Malcolm W. Browne The New York Times

After barely escaping death in the crash of his balloon at sea, Steve Fossett relaxed aboard a rescue ship in the South Pacific on Monday, saying that he planned ``to sit back and smell the roses for a while.''

Fossett, a 54-year-old commodities broker from Chicago, was almost killed Sunday attempting to become the first balloonist to circle the world nonstop. He had come much closer to that goal than any other aeronaut when a thunderstorm sucked him down, ruptured his balloon and slammed him into the sea.

He hit the water about 500 miles east of Australia after having traveled more than 15,200 miles from his starting point in Mendoza, Argentina. Thus, he broke his own distance record of 10,360 miles, a mark he set in 1997 when he reached India from St. Louis.

This morning, he was taken aboard the New Zealand navy tanker Endeavour, which was to bring him to Townsville, Australia, a trip expected to take about 2-1/2 days.

Aside from some difficult maneuvering over the Indian Ocean last week, Fossett had had a fairly trouble-free flight, and his ground-control team in St. Louis believed that on this, his fourth round-the-world attempt, he had an excellent chance of success.

But after he flew east over Australia at speeds greater than 100 miles an hour, Fossett's troubles began. He related the experience by radio to a journalist from 7 Network Australia aboard an Australian rescue plane.

Robert Rice, the team's chief meteorologist, had warned Fossett that he was approaching a line of thunderstorms over the South Pacific, and the balloonist tried to climb above them. At an altitude of nearly 30,000 feet, Fossett said he thought he had safely risen over the storm when a violent downdraft hit the big Solo Spirit balloon.

``It was amazing. There were tremendous sheets of hail just flooding me, and my greatest descent rate was 2,500 feet a minute,'' Fossett said. The compartment of the balloon holding helium lifting gas ruptured as the wind tore at it, leaving only the hot-air compartment for lift. Fossett threw some fuel tanks overboard to lighten his craft and slow its descent, and he poured full power into his propane hot-air burners.

And then he hit the water.

``I was very surprised,'' he said. ``I thought it would kill me. In just the last 30 seconds I cut away a lot of tanks. Maybe I gave the balloon a little bit of lift so I hit the water more gently, and then the capsule was immediately pulled underwater and filled with water.''

He said he expected to die.

Despite the water pouring into the capsule, the balloon's propane burners set the capsule on fire. But Fossett managed to grab his life raft and dive to safety through the capsule's submerged hatch. He also retrieved a radio distress beacon, which began transmitting automatically.

In a matter of hours, a French reconnaissance plane found the balloonist, dropped him another life raft and reported his position. After that, planes from the Australian air force remained over his raft almost continuously until he was picked up after 10 hours by a privately owned Australian sailboat.

Darren Curtis, the Australian journalist who interviewed Fossett by radio, asked him: ``Is this the end of adventures for Steve Fossett?''

The balloonist's reply, as relayed by his ground crew:

``Oh, no, but I'm not going to comment about any attempts to fly around the world by balloon at this time.''

Fossett is a championship sailor and climber, and he has competed in the Iditarod dog race in Alaska and in long-distance swimming.

His latest attempt to circumnavigate the world was the first in the Southern Hemisphere by any balloonist. Several other teams might attempt the trip next January, but considering the bad luck all have had during the past decade, the field of competitors may be small, even though a million-dollar prize awaits the first balloonist to complete the transglobal circuit.

Before leaving his floating capsule, Fossett sealed it in hopes of eventually recovering it. Its contents include instruments and records of a scientific experiment intended to test systems that might one day be used for a balloon on Mars.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Steve Fossett makes his way on his life raft to a larger enclosed raft that was dropped to him by a French reconnaissance plane.

Associated Press 

(2 -- color) FOSSETT