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 cold blue sea while awaiting rescue, his red wing and striped parachute floating beside him. In time, a rescue helicopter winched him from the wind-swept water to safety.
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. For 10 minutes, no one knew where he was.
