Albuquerque ? Balloonist Richard Abruzzo says the flight that ended with a crash that shattered his forearm and broke his pelvis was going well until he and his co-pilot were caught in a downdraft in Kansas.

Abruzzo, bruised and bandaged, talked with reporters Wednesday from his bed at Presbyterian Hospital, where he was transferred from Kansas on Tuesday.

He had tumbled from his gondola Sunday in southwestern Kansas during the Gordon Bennett gas balloon race that kicked off from Albuquerque the day before.

Abruzzo and co-pilot Carol Rymer Davis “were flying very fast but in stable air” until they were somewhere near Garden City, Kan. Then they were caught in a downdraft and descended rapidly, Abruzzo said.

Suddenly they found themselves entangled in power lines about 25 feet in the air. When Abruzzo leaned over to try to free the balloon, he was thrown out.

“The basket tipped about 60 degrees,” Rymer Davis said. “I was horrified. I looked over the edge and I couldn’t see him.”

She used a satellite telephone to give the coordinates to the chase crew, who called 911. Emergency personnel and police officers arrived to find Abruzzo, who had regained consciousness, trying to reach a farmhouse in the distance. They took him to a hospital in Garden City.

Meanwhile, Rymer Davis was able to free the balloon. She floated off and began to descend after a reassuring call to her husband, who also was in the race.

She came down about 8 miles from where Abruzzo fell and suffered only a few bruises.

“For a horrible situation, things went really well,” she said.

Abruzzo, the defending champion going into the race, flew 1,116 miles out of France last year. A team from Belgium won this year’s race with an unofficial distance of 2,111 miles.

“Ballooning’s a beautiful thing,” Abruzzo said. “Ballooning’s obviously in my blood.”