Bari, Italy – Italian authorities announced Monday that they have ended their search for Richard Abruzzo, the owner of New Mexico’s Ski Santa Fe and Sandia Peak ski areas, who is presumed dead after the balloon he was piloting crashed into the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Croatia last week.nPersonnel from the Italian Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and Croatian aircraft failed to find Abruzzo, 47, of Albuquerque, N.M., or fellow balloonist Carol Rymer Davis, 65, of Denver, Colo. It is believed that the pair crashed into the sea during heavy weather while participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race, which they won in 2004.

Croatian radar showed the balloonists descending toward the sea at 50 mph near the uninhabited Croatian island of Palagruza. It is not believed that Abruzzo or Davis could have survived impact with the water at such a speedy descent. Authorities used an undersea robot to scan the sea bed for any debris or remains, and located nothing.

Abruzzo’s wife Nancy returned to New Mexico without her husband this week. Abruzzo was an avid balloonist who in 2003 became the first pilot to successfully cross North America in a helium balloon. His father Ben was a member of the first balloon team to successfully cross the Pacific in 1981. He perished in a plane crash in 1985.