STEVE FOSSETT, the American tycoon and adventurer circling the globe non-stop in an aircraft, was last night celebrating achieving his 110th world record after successfully reaching Britain.

Even before he finished his epic journey, officials at his mission control in Crawley, West Sussex, announced that Fossett had broken the distance record of 25,361 miles when he flew over Shannon in Ireland just before 5pm yesterday.

Minutes later an electrical failure on board his plane Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, sponsored by Sir Richard Branson, forced him to divert from his intended landing site at Manston in Kent and make an emergency touchdown at Bournemouth.

A Virgin spokeswoman said: “Richard spoke to him to say congratulations after breaking the record. A few minutes after putting the phone down Steve’s May Day call came through.”

Steve Ridgway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said: “We have had to divert Steve Fossett into Bournemouth because of a major problem on board the aircraft. He would not have made it into Manston.

“There has been a generator failure which led to a total electrical failure. This meant we had to get him down within 15 minutes otherwise there was a risk of him having to ditch the plane. The good news is that he has broken the record for the longest non-stop flight.”

Fossett, who still holds 69 other world records, is now the only man to have flown more than 26,000 miles solo whether by plane or balloon, without refuelling.

The voyage broke the aircraft distance record of 24,987 miles set in 1986 by the lightweight Voyager piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager and also the balloon record of 25,361 miles set by Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard seven years ago.

Fossett, who started his trip from America on Wednesday, succeeded in circumnavigating the world two days ago. He then altered his projected route over the Atlantic to make up for lost fuel and weak winds.

The 61-year-old’s journey took more than 80 hours and traversed four continents.

His attempt was not been without difficulty. His plane lost 750lb of fuel during takeoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida because of a leak. He also had to overcome a malfunctioning air cooling system.

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