Somerset pilot recalls 'once in a lifetime' experience on non-stop balloon flight across the globe

• Watch the full interview with Brian Jones here.

A man from Somerset has opened up about being one of the pilots on the first non-stop balloon flight around the world. 

In 1999 Brian Jones from Taunton took off from Switzerland as co-pilot on the incredible mission, landing in Egypt 19 days and 28,000 miles later. 

The balloon was made in Bristol and because of its size, it had never even been tested before the record-breaking flight. 

Now 25 years later, Mr Jones has been describing the highs and lows of an adventure he'll never forget.

He said: “It was due to take off just after sunrise. I was really nervous, a little bit scared but elated too as this was the ultimate flight one could do in a hot air balloon and I was part of it.

“I just remember arriving at the launch site, and this huge beautiful shimmering balloon was sitting on the launch site with all the lights shining on the site. It was 56 metres tall and it was just enormous.

“I think the worst of it was saying goodbye to our wives you know. I'm going to be away for weeks, who knows if I'm going to come back or not and there was a bit of a sense of guilt about that."

Mr Jones said that once they were on board and doing our checks, it was as if "nothing else existed", adding that they were "completely focussed" on what they were doing.

“I'd never flown this type of balloon before and we lost our sense of time really," he explained.

"We were very busy, there was constant work because there was no autopilot as such so one pilot had to be physically flying it at all times.

“We had a remarkable relationship in as much, as in three weeks not a single cross word passed between us."

Mr Jones described how they came "close to not making it".

He said: “There were two times when we came close to not making it at all - I’m talking about dying. 

“One was really scary in the middle of the Pacific when we were faced with some pretty big clouds ahead of us.

“Now you fly a balloon into cloud, you know cumulus-type bubbly cloud, and you're probably not going to come out. 

“We opened the hatch and at altitude and we threw - we had to - we threw all sorts of stuff out, food, clothes, filters, batteries, anything we could to get lighter to get the balloon as high as possible and we managed to get over the top of these things.

“When we crossed the finish line we were elated of course and we were standing in the capsule looking at the GPS and as we crossed the line we knew we'd done it and so we hugged each other you know and it was just fabulous. And once we'd done it our control teams said we'd rather you didn't land could you make Egypt?

“We were in the middle of a jet stream wind which was fantastic and in our log we were logging speed and it was 130 knots which is nearly 160mph and in a balloon you think this is extraordinary.

“Then we got to Egypt and had to land which was exciting needless to say."

Mr Jones described the experience as a "once in a lifetime thing", adding: "It could never be repeated and nor would I want it to."

“I just look back with a huge amount of satisfaction, pride and thankfulness," he said.

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