Yves Rossy, aka Fusionman and Jetman, flying in 2009

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Jetman” Yves Rossy, former Swiss military and commercial pilot, found himself in the water, uninjured, after failing to fly from Morocco to Spain. The 50-year-old was attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar with a jet engine strapped to his back, in a feat similar to his crossing of the English Channel in 2008. Details of what caused him to crash are not yet available.

Links to other sites: Reuters, Rossy home page

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A cargo boat that disappeared in European waters in recent days is causing worry in the maritime industry, with speculation that it might be the first case of piracy in the busy international waters around Europe. The Arctic Sea was last heard from 28 July when it made a routine report to British authorities as it passed through the English Channel. Four days earlier the crew had reported they were attacked off a Swedish island and beaten up by a group of men who said they were Swedish police, and they later reported that the group had left in a speedboat. The cargo ship, which carries a Maltese flag and is registered in Russia, was expected to make port in Algeria 4 August, but never showed up. It is carrying timber worth $2 million, according to Russian reports, but media are speculating that it could also be carrying a secret cargo of drugs, which could perhaps explain its mysterious disappearance. Russia Today, The Globe & Mail/AP,

[with video] Blanc Nez, France (GenevaLunch) – Jacques-Olivier Travers and his famous eagle Sherkan were to fly across the English Channel, leaving from the Cap Blanc Nez in France and heading for Dover, but the bird had a case of cold feet and went straight back to France Tuesday 21 July.

Travers jumped from a helicopter headed for Dover, at 13,000 feet and an hour later he had paraglided across the Channel, becoming the first person to do so. Sherkan, a bird raised in captivity that Travers has trained to fly, refused to leave his cage in the helicopter, was finally forced out by his bird handlers – and he headed in the opposite direction from the route parallel to Travers that had been planned.

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