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The Race That Turned to Ruin
"Fifteen teams lifted off from Switzerland in gas ballooning’s most audacious race. Three days later, two of them drifted into Belarusian airspace—but only one would survive."
On the ground, Wallace and Brielmann’s chase crew, tasked with keeping tabs on their whereabouts and relaying weather information, navigated a maze of Polish roads, ready to retrieve them wherever they landed. Six of the remaining Gordon Bennett balloons continued on a northeasterly path toward Lithuania, including the Colombus II, containing the young German star Willi Eimers and his copilot, Bernd Landsmann. Wallace, having spent his early career arming military gunships, recognized the camouflaged Mil Mi-24 Hind—a sophisticated Russian chopper also dubbed the “devil’s chariot”—as it made close, aggressive passes at them.
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