Fifty years ago this month, the Free Life balloon took off from George Sid Miller's field in Springs to attempt the first trans-Atlantic balloon voyage. The balloon appears in the photograph seen here, from the collection of the Springs Library. Pamela Brown and her husband, Rodney Anderson, hired a balloon pilot, Malcolm Brighton, to navigate the 52-foot-diameter balloon.
The couple were stereotypical "city people": They both came to New York City as actors, although Anderson became a commodities trader instead. They intended to sell the story of their record-breaking adventure to recover the costs. They were utterly inexperienced -- Anderson had only one previous balloon flight to his name, and the original balloon pilot had backed out. The three travelers departed from Springs around 1:40 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20, 1970, with a crowd estimated at a thousand people watching.
The launch was hailed as a community-supported event, although The East Hampton Star pointed out that the couple chose to leave from Springs for "no reason." For the month of September 1970, The Star chronicled each step of the balloonists' preparations, describing purchases and detailing supplies. Some 30 Springs residents supported the launch and helped with preparations for the $100,000 orange-and-white balloon's takeoff.
The couple spent their final days in a cottage belonging to the VanDewater family, behind 775 Fireplace Road. But 30 hours into the trip, the balloon ran into trouble about 500 miles southeast of Newfoundland. The balloon relied on a combination of helium and hot air to maintain altitude, and the helium can be burned to compensate for the lack of solar heating during the night. A high-altitude cold front and a rainstorm the second evening forced the Free Life's crew to crash into the Atlantic Ocean.
They sent a final message indicating that they were ditching the balloon and requesting search and rescue. Despite a 14-day search with combined efforts of the United States Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Coast Guard, the crew was never recovered.
