Frenchman was unable to refuel his jet-powered hoverboard on a boat as planned

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A former jetski champion has failed in his effort to cross the Channel on his jet-power hoverboard.

Franky Zapata fell into the sea as he attempted to land on a vessel to refuel halfway across the Channel.

A member of the Frenchman’s team said the movement of the waves required perfect timing and the landing platform had shifted a few centimetres as Zapata came down.

“We’re talking about a few centimetres. It’s an enormous disappointment…but he will definitely try again,” they said.

Zapata, who was wearing a lifejacket, was not thought to have been injured.

The 40-year-old military reservist had hoped to succeed in what he said was a “kid’s dream” on the 110th anniversary of the first aircraft crossing of the Channel by his aviator compatriot Louis Blériot.

Zapata left a stretch of beach in Sangatte, near Calais, at 9.05am local time.

Locals and television crews watched as the five mini turbo-jets on the Flyboard Air roared and he rose into the air heading disappearing over the sea.

There followed about 10 nervous minutes before he arrived at a refuelling vessel in the middle of the Channel, where he was expected to stop for two minutes to change the backpack carrying the kerosene fuel powering the Flyboard.

The landing platform is a metal structure measuring only one square metre. Zapata was supposed to land, throw off his backpack carrying the fuel and strap on another backpack with enough fuel to make it to St Margaret’s Bay near Dover.

He covered 11 miles (18km) and reached the refuelling vessel in the middle of the Channel. The sea was not rough, but a slight movement of the landing platform because of waves threw him off balance and sent him into the water.

Afterwards, Zapata was reportedly furious, blaming French maritime authorities for the failure of his challenge. Officials had apparently refused to allow the flying Frenchman to refuel his jet-propelled hoverboard in the air – one over French waters the other over UK waters – during the crossing, forcing him to attempt a landing on a vessel at sea. French media reported the “Anglo-Saxon” authorities were more relaxed about maritime regulations as long as other people were not put at risk.

Zapata is reported to have fallen into the sea on the English side of the Channel and was rescued “conscious” by divers on the refuelling vessel.

Zapata wowed crowds on 14 July – Bastille Day – flying over a military parade on Paris’s Place de la Concorde in the presence of The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.