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| Date: | Wednesday 25 November 1992 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Fantasy Balloon |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Aircraft missing |
| Location: | -
 Pacific Ocean
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Illegal Flight |
| Departure airport: | Lake Biwa shore |
| Sand Mountain |
On November 23, 1992, Yoshikazu Suzuki, the pilot of the Fantasy, planned to test fly the Fantasy, a gondola with many helium-filled balloons, on the shores of Lake Biwa. He had been camping out on the shores of Lake Biwa since the night of the previous day, the 22nd, to protect the balloons.
The test flight consisted of an experiment to climb to 200 or 300 meters while tethered to the ground, and this had been accepted by the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). However, Suzuki secretly planned to force a flight to America, and although he climbed to 120 meters and landed on the ground, at around 4:20 p.m. he said "I'm off," untied the ropes tethering the Fantasy, and set off for Sand Mountain, Nevada, USA.
Suzuki had been in contact with his family by cell phone every hour since 10 p.m., reporting that something was wrong with the balloon, that it was not climbing as high as expected, and that he had gone out to sea. His final phone call the next morning at 6 a.m. was when he said, "I'll go as far as I can, so don't worry!" Late that night, an SOS signal was sent from the emergency position indicator radio beacon, and at 8:30 a.m. on the 25th, the Japan Coast Guard's search aircraft, a Falcon 900, spotted Fantasy flying at 2,500 meters above the coast of Miyagi Prefecture. However, Suzuki waved at the search aircraft and sat down, and stopped sending the SOS signal. At 11:30 a.m., it was determined that he intended to continue flying, so the search aircraft called off its pursuit, but there was no news of him thereafter, and Suzuki Yoshikazu and Fantasy were completely missing.
Sources:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%88%B4%E6%9C%A8%E5%98%89%E5%92%8C
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/128fee82df99a9fe51c5941a47af16f7415a9db1
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Jun-2025 08:28 | yukipara3 | Added |
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