Up, up and away...skydiver's Pounds 6m dream vanishes into thin air

It was supposed to be another giant leap for man. It was more of a giant misstep.

Michel Fournier, a skydiver, was aiming to complete the world's highest skydive by leaping from the stratosphere at four times the height of a commercial jet's cruising altitude and plummet back to earth, breaking the sound barrier en route. In the end, the Frenchman failed to get even one foot off the ground.

The helium balloon that was to have transported his fibreglass phone-booth capsule to 130,000ft malfunctioned, soaring into the sky without its cargo and leaving the 64-year-old daredevil stranded in the wheat fields of western Canada, his lifelong dream in tatters.

Balloons have been the bane of M. Fournier's record-breaking quest, which has spanned 15 years and cost him an estimated 6m. When he last attempted the record plunge five years ago, his balloon tore before lift-off. He spent 100,000 on a new one, a Russian import that stretched the length of two football fields, which he described as "the one that will do it - my balloon of success."

Famous last words. As the man nicknamed "Monsieur Mach One" was making last-minute preparations in his pod, the balloon, inflated with 600,000 cubic metres of helium, escaped like a giant fleeing jellyfish to audible gasps from the crowd gathered in the small town of North Battleford in Saskatchewan province.

"I was excited. I was certain, all of the conditions were perfect - the balloon, the big bubble, everything looked good. And then suddenly I saw the balloon pass in front of me," M. Fournier told Agence France Presse.

The former French paratrooper, who has more than 8,500 jumps to his name, could barely mask his frustration at the anti-climatic, not to mention farcical, conclusion to the years and dollars he has invested in training.

The physical endurance preparation could never be underestimated, considering that most humans will pass out at 15,000ft and the blood will start to boil in their veins at 62,000ft. M. Fournier was a regular in low pressure chambers, ran 15km every day and also spent hours staring at a single point on a wall to help him hone the mental stamina needed for the long ascent to the fringes of space. Yesterday, he had already spent an hour breathing pure oxygen to purge his body of the nitrogen that could bring on the bends during his skydive.

Had everything gone to plan, M. Fournier, clad in a fluorescent yellow pressurised suit designed to withstand temperatures of minus 100C, would have undertaken a two-and-a-half-hour vertical journey, borne aloft by the balloon until he was 25 miles up.

There, on the threshold of space, he would have been able to admire the curvature of Earth. Then, he would have stepped out of the capsule door, plunging to the ground in just 15 minutes and reaching speeds of more than 900mph in the process.

A safe landing would have secured him four world records: the highest parachute jump, the highest manned balloon flight, the longest free fall and the highest speed ever recorded by a human being without a vehicle. Instead, retired US air force pilot, Colonel Joseph Kittinger, can rest easy knowing that his 102,800ft jump from 1960 still stands.

The post-mortem on yesterday's attempt was under way last night. M. Fournier's team recovered the balloon about 20 miles from the launch site and were examining it for clues.

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