The Washington times., 1933-09-11
BY CAPT. FRANCIS EEK HYNEK
and LIEUT.. ZEBIGNIEW
BURZYNSKY

BY CAPT. FRANCIS EEK HYNEK
and LIEUT.. ZEBIGNIEW
BURZYNSKY
AS Told to THOMAS WYLING
Copyright. 1888. in United States and
Canada by Star Newspaper Service)
RIvIERE-A-PIERRE, Que bee,
Sept. II GN.SO.-We left Chi
cago at 7:19 p. m. on September 2
with a good supply of oxygen and
SO sacks of sand for ballast.
We rose to 500 meters and a
northeast wind carried us over
Lake Michigan.
We reached the other side Of
Lake Michigan by 3:42 a. m. Sun
day, having thrown out 1917 sacks
Of sand to get altitude.
During the night we had kept
watch hours. The sky began to
cloud and visibility below became
poor. BY 7:24 p. m. Sunday we
maSsed over the peninsula north
west of Wharton, Ontario, and by
10 p. m. passed over Muskoka,
having thrown out more ballast.
We were up to 1000 meters and
had only six sacks of sand left.
Threw Out Bottles
To reserve the sand ballast, we
threw out the empty bottles of
oxygen with a small parachute
attached to each. We rose over
the 1000 meter mark.
MuSkoka was the last sight OF
land below. We were at $500
feet at 6:57 a. m. BY a. m. we
were somewhere over Portneuf
county but did not know it at
that time. Then we started to
come down.
We had been as high as 10000
meters during the voyage but we
steadily dropped.
BY 8:07 a. m. Monday, we were
only 1000 meters up and had only
two sacks of sand left. Our
oxygen supply was gone.
Steadily Dropping
After we threw out our last
bottle of oxygen when we dropped
to 500 meters at 9:15 a. M, we
threw out our masks and mouth
pieces, spare ropes and every
thing we could possibly dispense
with. But still the balloon kept
falling.
We discarded our coats and
fur boots and tossed them over
board.
Our calculations seemed to in
dicate we had passed eastward to
the Atlantic and were over the
ocean. There was nothing more
left tojettison but our 1nStru-
ments and food supply. So we
threw over the food, keeping only
IL oranges and a small oox OF
raisins.
Then we saw the forest below
and we were steadily dropping
Hit MOuntainside
We wanted to win the race and
keen in the air but there was
nothing more to throw out. AT
1O:48 a. m, the balloon was
drifting toward mountain top.
The basket struck the mountain
side and we pulled the cord, re-
leased the gas and settled down.
The basket struck in the trees
about two meters above the
ground.
The balloon deflated and set
tied over the treetops. Recovering
the paragraph with its record OF
the trip, we slept from noon to
2:3O o. m. in the basket and then
started on a tramp back to clVlll-
zation.
Carrying a compass and the
baragraph we fought our way
through the tangled mass OF un-
dergrowth which choked the
mountainside.
Our clothing was torn and our
hands rashed by the bushes. We
camped for the night. 1t was
cold.
At 7 a. M, the next morning,
we started again. We had a half
orange for breakfast and picked a
few berries along the way during
the day. We guarded the dozen
oranges carefully.
40 RaiSinS Left
The second morning breakfast
consisted of a whole orange. We
had another orange Tuesday
night. wednesday morning we
ate an orange and by Thursday
morning the last orange was
divided.
Then we counted our raisins
carefully. There we're forty in
the box.
We had about 40 cigarettes but
we did not have to hoard them.
We also realized by this time
(continued on Page II, Col. S.
Boy, 6, Misses Sea