Jet-winged flier unhurt after ditching in ocean

The Associated Press

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ATLANTERRA, Spain — A Swiss adventurer trying to soar from Morocco to Spain on jet-powered wings ditched safely into the Atlantic on Wednesday after hitting turbulence and clouds so thick he could not tell if he was flying up or down.

The bad weather thwarted Yves Rossy's bid to become the first person to achieve such an intercontinental crossing.

Rossy waved from the sea while awaiting rescue. In time, a helicopter winched him from the wind-swept water to safety.

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"I am still here — a little bit wet but I am still here," he said after a medical checkup. "I did my best."

Rossy, a 50-year-old former fighter pilot, took off from Tangiers but a few minutes into what was supposed to be a 15-minute flight he vanished from TV screens providing live footage from planes and choppers accompanying him.

Rossy said that about three or four minutes into the flight he hit turbulence and entered clouds that he described as beautiful but disorienting because he could not see and had no reference points.

He tried to climb over the cloud cover, "but before the blue came again," his flying became unstable.

"So the sea comes very fast," he said. "Unstable, at this height, there is no playing anymore. So I throw away my wing and opened my parachute."