Arban balloon crash in Adriatic. 19th-century illustration of the rescue of French balloonist Francisque Arban (1815-1849) by fishermen in the Adriatic in 1846. Arban had taken off from Trieste on 27 November 1846. Arban is most famous for one of his last flights, in 1849, when he crossed the Alps by hydrogen balloon from Marseilles, France, to Turin, Italy, reaching a height of 4500 metres and passing south of Mont Blanc. Artwork from 'Aerostation - Aviation' (1911) by French civil engineer Max de Nansouty (1854-1913), part of the 'Les merveilles de la science' series of 1867-1891 by Louis Figuier.