Veteran pilots Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis are presumed dead after their balloon disappeared over the Adriatic Sea during a European race last week. The ballooning community held out hope as crews searched the area for days, but nothing was found.
"They'll definitely be in our thoughts, and we're wishing that they were here competing with us," said Troy Bradley, who is flying in this year's race and once spent six days in a gondola with Abruzzo on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Two large weather balloons honoring them and their families were sent aloft about midnight and the race got under way shortly after that, said deputy race director Kevin Knapp.
"It was perfect; a great night, or morning, for the launch," said Knapp.
He said that immediately after the weather balloons went up, people in the crowd released hundreds of smaller helium balloons.
"We were sending our thoughts and prayers aloft for Richard and Carol and their families," Knapp said.
Also in honor of the two, each of the six race balloons carried "chili ristras," collections of red chilis connected by strings. The tradition stems from the record-setting trans-Atlantic flight of the balloon known as the Double Eagle II, which included Abruzzo's father, the late famed balloonist Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman. The three carried a ristra with them for good luck.
The event was initially scheduled for Tuesday, but concerns about rough weather delayed the start four times.
With a break in the weather late Friday, crews were able to begin the slow, careful inflation of their balloons with either helium or hydrogen, which are lighter-than-air gases that give the balloons lift.
Organizers say the race could last three or four days. The team that travels the longest distance wins. To win, pilots must astutely take advantage of wind currents and fluctuation in temperatures to get the most distance out of their balloons, encountering a series of hazards along the way.
Abruzzo, 47, of Albuquerque, and Davis, 65, of Denver, were flying in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race when contact was lost Sept. 29 over the Adriatic Sea. Organizers of that race said radar indicated the two plunged toward the water at 50 mph (80 kph) and they likely didn't survive.
The Gordon Bennett and the America's Challenge are the biggest events in balloon racing, and Abruzzo and Davis dominated the competitions. They won the 2003 America's Challenge - one of Abruzzo's five victories in that race. They also won the 2004 Gordon Bennett in France.
Abruzzo also won the race in 2002 and 2004 when he teamed with former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. They were entered in this year's America's Challenge.
Despite the pall left by Abruzzo and Davis' disappearance, those competing in the race have no reservations. They say they're focused on what they have to do.
Bradley has his lucky Double Eagle II coin with him.
"On every gas flight I've ever done, I carry that coin because those guys are my heroes," he said.
