The remains of two American champion balloonists who went missing in September were found in Italy today.
Tragic Richard Abuzzo, 47, and Carol Rymer Davis, 65, were discovered by a fishing vessel in the Adriatic Sea at 1am local time, Italian coastguards said.
Their bodies were still inside the balloon gondola when it was hauled in 11 miles north of Vieste, in Italy.
Documents in the gondola confirmed the identities of the tragic pair, although formal identification has not yet taken place.
The pair disappeared during The 54th Gordon Bennett Cup race, which started near Bristol on September 25.
Four days later, they contacted the Italian coastguard to report bad weather conditions – and became lost in thunderstorms.
They last had contact with the Italian coastguard four days later – and became lost in thunderstorms shortly after.
A search was launched and led by the Italian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) but was called off with no success after almost a week.
Race director Don Cameron said the tragic find would bring ”closure” to the families who had waited for more than two-and-a-half months for information.
He said: ”It’s very sad news but it was of course expected.
”It will give closure to the families. Having absolutely no information at all has been very distressing for them.”
maybe the italians shot them down in retaliation for the Amanda Knox murder case…