6-year-old Colorado boy floats away in balloon
 

anyone that can turn on cnn do so~

i am saying a prayer for that poor boy & his family~



http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/col...oon/index.html

CNN) -- Officials are trying to rescue a 6-year-old boy who climbed into a balloon-like experimental aircraft built by his parents and floated into the sky over eastern Colorado.


The aluminum-covered, dome-shaped balloon is 20 feet long and 5 feet high, Larimer County Sheriff's Office says.

Margie Martinez of the Weld County Sheriff's Office said a sibling saw the boy climb into the basket before the balloon took off. Since the door on the balloon was unlocked, Martinez said it's possible the boy had fallen out.

The balloon appeared to be a saucer-shaped, Mylar-coated helium balloon, not unlike a party balloon. The craft was drifting eastward, authorities said.

The helium balloon was tethered to the boy's family home in Fort Collins, the Larimer County Sheriff's Department said. The boy got into the craft Thursday morning and undid the rope anchoring it.

The aluminum-covered, dome-shaped balloon is 20 feet long and 5 feet high, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office said. Watch the balloon float thousands of feet over Colorado »

"The structure at the bottom of the balloon that the boy is in is made of extremely thin plywood and won't withstand any kind of a crash at all," said Erik Nilsson, Larimer County Emergency Manager, according to CNN affiliate KMGH.


KUSA: Officials trying to rescue child from experimental aircraft
KGMH: Frantic Search Under Way To Find Boy
The Federal Aviation Administration is trying to track the aircraft on radar and has notified the Denver International Airport. Shortly after noon (2 p.m. ET), the balloon was sighted two miles south of Evans.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers estimated the wind would keep the vessel moving at 30 mph. Authorities say the craft is about 7,000 feet above the ground.

Kathy Davis, spokeswoman for the sheriff's department, said a dispatcher received a call Thursday morning, and emergency services personnel were contacted.

Davis said a balloon company had been contacted and several media outlets offered to help track the balloon with their helicopters.


The family has described the structure as a a dome-shaped "homemade flying saucer," Larimer County Sheriff's Office Spokeswoman Kathy Davis said.

"We're trying to determine the best course of action," Davis said. "This is a first and we'll do what we need to do."

it just made a soft landing in a farm field some 80 miles from where it took off, no word on the boy~ here's to hoping he's fine & just had the ride of his life~

they are now saying, the boy is not in the balloon~ his name is falcon & his family were recently was on the show 'wife swap'~

my god~

I'm watching CNN...
 

this is so bizarre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBWJXXgaYBo

How bizarre.

i have been watching it live~ now they are saying the father said there was some sort of box attached to the bottom of this balloon that is no longer there~ going along w/ reports that someone saw something fall from the balloon~

scary stuff~

i just hoped, that maybe he untethered the thing & got scared & is hiding~ but so far a ground search has turned up nadda~

here's a pic of the boy & family~

http://www.tmz.com/2009/10/15/balloo...ene-wife-swap/

reports just coming in, that the boy falcon is alive & home~

I'm hoping this wasn't just all a publicity stunt (a theory that's being floated out there- no pun intended- right now)

they said he was hiding in a box in the attic of the garage~ omg, he is lucky & gonna be in big trouble i suspect~

What a total yahoo.

He was at home the whole time??
Wow, thanks a lot, kid.

After watching the video you posted, I can't imagine it's not.

& i'm sorry, i see why there was so much urgency to try to help if this boy was truly in this balloon, but why wait so long to check this attic?, i mean this isn't the 1st time a kid has been reported missing & was just hiding out to avoid trouble~

i am glad he is ok, that is the main thing~ but my god what a fiasco he caused all by a little lie~

I can sorta see that but in my opinion its a "hindsight is 20/20" sort of thing. Looking back - - Of COURSE he was in the attic! When it actually happens - "OH MY GOD MY SIX-YEAR-OLD KID'S IN A BALLOON ALL BY HIMSELF!"

Not, "OH MY GOD MY SIX-YEAR-OLD KID'S IN A BALLOON ALL BY HIMSELF - - - wait - let's check the attic!"

i hear that~ but the news was reporting no one check it at all until he was found~ i mean there were so many people searching everywhere for him, in the air & on the ground, i would just think one of them might have checked there~ i am just glad he is ok & it is a happy ending~

now maybe my comments don't seem so silly, check this out:

very interesting, they lied?~

Balloon Boy Busts Parents

http://www.tmz.com/2009/10/15/balloo...blitzer-video/

Falcon Heene and his family were just on Larry King Live -- where he suggested his family set up the entire "boy trapped in a flying balloon" story, saying "You guys said that we did this for the show."


His father responded by saying "Man," his mom adding "No."

Wolf Blitzer didn't hear what the boy said and moved on to the next question.

The family appeared on the ABC show "Wife Swap" back in March

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2009/10/15/balloo...#ixzz0U5uYWkF4

I can't believe Wolf Blitzer didn't pick up on this....

Unless maybe he knew the interview would end if he did,
and realizing what had happened, decided that the best thing to
do was keep the interview going as long as possible in order
to squeeze out as much information as possible.
Anyway, shame on them. http://www.sevenwondersonline.net/Sm...ic/disgust.gif

Criminal Charges to be Filed.....
 

There's a story on Yahoo! that the Sheriff's Office is going to file charges in the balloon hoax. The Sheriff himself is clearly pissed and he says that he only has the authority to charge them with a misdemeanor; but he's going to look into whether it may be possible for them to be charged with a federal crime as well...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091018/...boy_in_balloon

On another show the interviewer questioned what the boy meant and the father went a little ballistic. Falcon wouldn't answer and eventually Heene just said that the kid was confused because they'd already answered all these questions for other interviewers or something to that effect. I would imagine that other charges can be brought because you can't have military copters searching for a boy that you know is not missing! Ass.

Did anyone see the kid puke on live TV on the Today show on Friday? Ugh.

I think the kid is really stressed and showed it . . .

They should throw the book at these idiots . . .

Yeah. He should have been in bed. Something is definitely wrong with this picture. It looks as though they are going to try and get the Feds to prosecute them with something.

Yeah. I think they are charging them with:

Filing a false report
Conspiracy
Contributing to the delinquency of a minor
Attempting to influence a public official (law enforcement)

I wonder what other federal charges might also be applicable?

Up, up and a-WAAA-aaaay, their beautiful, their beautiful,
plans for another reality show!

:wavey: . . . . :rolleyes:

Hate to say it but I think the Sheriff may be "over-the-top" with saying he wants
Federal charges. I don't know too much about it but I'm not sure there's really any
"meat" there. Except maybe with the part about filing a false report to the cops
(making them waste time and resources on nothing, etc.) - I don't know the details
of how all that works. I think they maybe will go after them with the Social Workers too,
and honestly in my opinion that may very well be justified.

Not sure either, but the federal charges might be possible because the military and the FAA were involved. Plus, the search interferred with air travel into Denver International Airport, and all issues with air travel are federal.

Exactly. The sheriff is now stating that this was a hoax that had been planned for two weeks.

Oh - that I didn't know. Alrighty then, yeah, maybe they can nail them with Federal charges there....

:rolleyes:

According to the current lead story on cnn.com, the father involved in the balloon hoax is saying that his family feels "under siege."
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Bernie Madoff says that Madoff feels like he is "being punished" and that it's like being "in prison." ;)

OK, now from what I've learned about the parents (not too stable), the kids should be taken away from them. I mean, Falcon throws up on national TV because he's so worked up about the lying & pretending; it's obvious to me that those two aren't fit to be raising kids, JMO :sorry:

Lee :distress:

I also wonder if he was throwing up out of fear of what his father was going to do to him for letting the cat out of the bag.

WOW, I hadn't thought of that - I was thinking more in "general" terms of him feeling the stress of all that was going on,
and that it was maybe from confusion and mistakenly thinking (as only a six-year-old can) that he had done something "wrong."
(Rather than because of perceived or real threats from his father, I mean.)

But yeah i.m.o. they need to investigate further -
"where there's smoke there's fire."
Certainly at the least they're setting a very bad example.

more & more is coming out about this loon~ like being arrested for corpral punishment on a spouse, tho the charges dropped~ & the 911 call where someone hung up on a call to 911 where they heard someone saying they couldn't breathe or something like that~ & when he & his wife were contacted by police they said she had a red mark on her cheek & redness in her eye~

the guy seems like a total loose cannon~