Three European balloonists, barred by China from entering its airspace, yesterday abandoned hopes of flying round the world non-stop but decided to stay aloft for two more days because they were "having fun".
They would try to make up for their disappointment by trying to break a 12-year-old world record for non-stop flight without refuelling by balloon or plane, mission officials said.
The British flight director, Mr Alan Noble, said at the Geneva mission control centre that the trio would continue across India and the Bay of Bengal to see how far they could get.
Crew member Bertrand Piccard (39), a Swiss psychiatrist, radioed back that they hoped to bring the giant silver Breitling Orbiter-II down in Thailand tomorrow after setting a new flight endurance mark.
That record was set by a US team which circled the globe in nine days and four minutes in a lightweight plane in 1986, starting and ending at a California air base.
Mr Piccard confirmed that he and his colleagues, Belgian pilot Mr Wim Verstraeten and British engineer Mr Andy Elson, were enjoying their flight even though they were disappointed their dreams of being first round the world had evaporated.
The Swiss poetry enthusiast, from a famous family of explorers, earlier told controllers that the crew had seen dawn rise over the glistening white Taj Mahal monument in Agra, south of the Indian capital, Delhi.
"With that sort of experience, you can't feel that this journey was wasted," he said. China had cited security reasons for blocking the flight, suggesting the Orbiter would be a danger to civil airliners. But the balloonists, who took off from the Swiss Alps last Wednesday, had hoped Beijing would relent as they got closer.