LONDON — Last week, the world learned that Franky Zapata could fly, thanks to a dazzling Bastille Day performance on his hoverboard in Paris. On Thursday, as he tried to cross the English Channel, the world learned that he can also swim.

Mr. Zapata’s highly anticipated attempt to cross the English Channel on a jet-powered hoverboard ended in failure, when the device and its rider plunged into the water 15 minutes after takeoff from Sangatte, in northern France.

Mr. Zapata, the French inventor of the aircraft that he calls a Flyboard Air, was uninjured but disappointed, according to his team.

He missed a landing platform mounted on a boat midway through the journey, about 11 miles from his destination, where he intended to refuel, according to Stéphane Denis, a member of his technical team who spoke with French news outlet BFMTV.