DEFLATED but not dejected was how adventurer David Hempleman-Adams described himself after his ill-fated bid to cross the Atlantic in a wicker basket balloon.

Mr Hempleman Adams, 45, from Box, said he would be regrouping and preparing for a second attempt at becoming the first man to fly solo in a traditional balloon 3,337-miles across the Atlantic west to east.

Barely 24 hours after taking off from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last week, the autopilot on his five-tonne Roziere-class balloon failed him.

He had covered nearly 400 miles when a call from the Chase de Vere Atlantic Challenge control room in Bath told him to ditch the balloon just 15 miles from the Atlantic.

"I said to them that I was thinking of having a crack at crossing the Atlantic without the autopilot and they told me to grow up," said the explorer.

"You could probably fly the balloon for three days, but there is no way you cross the Atlantic and keep awake for six days without the autopilot.

"I am obviously disappointed but we are having debriefing meetings at the moment and seeing what we can for next year," said Mr Hempleman-Adams.

He is now looking ahead and keeping his spirits up with his usual sense of humour.

"There is not much more we can do except get a few more donuts next time. Everything went remarkable well up until the autopilot disengaged."

Mr Hempleman-Adams said he would be taking a second autopilot next year as a reserve safety measure.

But even with the best team in the world and the best equipment you cannot predict every situation he said.

"I was confident I would do it this year but you just don't know. Next year everything may work technically and the weather could be the problem," he said.

So well in fact that he had whistled along to spitting distance of the Atlantic.

But one of the two burners in the balloon inexplicably froze, then the same autopilot system he used to become the first man to fly to the North Pole in 2000 packed up.

For several miles the balloon was chased by the emergency services and scores of news crews following the story live.

Mr Hempleman-Adams was even more bemused at the way locals were shining spotlights at his low-flying craft."I was doing about 20 knots, which is a hell of a speed, skimming the top of trees, then I suddenly heard all these sirens chasing me it was like the Keystone Cops.

"I hit the top of a maple tree and stopped dead in my tracks and hit the ground with an almighty thud," he said.

Bizarrely, the field in which he eventually crash-landed in Hebron, Connecticut, belonged to the mother of the man whose hanger the team had used to store the balloon in Pittsburgh.

"Remarkably, nothing was stolen," said the explorer. "The only thing that was damaged was my pride. But I'm definitely going to attempt the flight again because there is still plenty of life in the old dog. The challenge is there for the taking."

When he was flying in the balloon he said it was a wonderful but tiring experience.

"I was extremely beautiful and I saw the sunrise as I travelled from Pittsburg to Boston. I could see the forests below but also the lights of New York.

But there was lots of air traffic control that was a constant problem. I had to keep talking to them whilst trying to fly the balloon which was very difficult."