Fossett: No more ballooning

After nearly 15 days and 21,100 miles in the air, millionaire Steve Fossett finally ended his recordbreaking balloon trip.

Despite the last-minute challenges of high-gusting winds and a potentially lethal fire near his fuel tanks, Fossett finally touched down near the Australian outback settlement of Birdsville early morning local time.

Among his first words as he clambered out of his Spirit of Freedom balloon were: "I don't plan to make any more major balloon flights."

The 58-year-old, from Chicago, entered the record books on Tuesday as he crossed east of 117 degrees longitude to become the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.

But winds over the Australian desert mean he had to wait to make a landing, on a dusty river bed on a Queensland cattle station. Even then, three members of his crew were dragged along the rocky ground as they clung to ropes to help Fossett deflate the balloon.

Just hours beforehand, the American adventurer had had to clamber out of his capsule in the freezing night to deal with his first major calamity of the trip - a propane fire caused by a loose burner hose.

He managed to put out the fire by shutting off a ball valve join which attached the hose to propane tanks and the balloon's burner.

Emerging to the admiring gazes of crowds of local farmhands, Fossett said afterwards: "This was a tough night. I had severe turbulence and in fact I had my parachute on in case I had to jump."

He added: "Any fire in this kind of a situation is extraordinarily dangerous. It can spread rapidly and start burning through hoses. You'd be flying a bomb."

He is expected to fly to Sydney for a media conference and head back to the US tomorrow.