Identify a balloon accident in the 90s or 2000s I recall hearing about a balloon accident on a news programme on TV in the 90s or 2000s. From memory it was some sort of record attempt, and the last telemetry from the flight indicated that the gondola was in free-fall.

I seem to recall a crew of at least two people. I think it happened over the sea, certainly far from where anyone could observe it, hence the need to rely on radio for communication with the crew and telemetry.

At the time of the report it wasn't know exactly what happened or the fate of the crew, but the free-fall telemetry made it sound pretty bad.

Can anyone identify this accident?
P 15 of this link describes an incident on July 20 1990 where an unmanned scientific balloon project accidentally experienced a freefall of the payload from 120,000'.  Any chance that what you are remembering was this, or something similar? 

http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19910006317


  The 1990 calibration actually consisted of two flights,
  one on July 20, 1990 and the other on September 6, 1990.
  A malfunction occurred during the first flight, which
  resulted in a complete loss of data and a subsequent free fall
  of the payload from _ 120,000 ft which bent up the tracker
  assembly and destroyed several cell modules. The tracker
  was rebuilt, several cells were replaced, and the refurbished
  payload was flown again in September.