Officials Race to Save Boy Trapped in Flying Balloon
 

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DEVELOPING: Officials are scrambling to figure out how to rescue a 6-year-old boy who climbed into a homemade balloon before it floated away in Fort Collins, Colo


The bizarre scene played out live on television and prompted fears that the flying saucer-shaped balloon would crash with the young child inside. FAA spokesman Mike Fergus says the agency has been notified and it was unclear whether traffic controllers had picked it up on radar.


Larimer County sheriff's spokeswoman Eloise Campanella says the device has the potential to rise to 10,000 feet. Sheriff's officials last saw the device floating south of Milliken, which is about 40 miles north of Denver. The craft is reportedly traveling at about 25 miles per hour.


The FAA is now clearing airspace near Denver International Airport.
Bill Hughes, owner of Blue Sky Balloons, a New York-based hot air balloon company, said there's two ways the balloon could potentially descend — by its occupant releasing some of the gas inside or someone adding weight to it in some way.


"One of those things would cause it to descend," Hughes told Fox News Channel.


"We were sitting eating, out looking where they normally shoot off hot air balloons. My husband said he saw something. It went over our rooftop. Then we saw the big round balloonish thing, it was spinning," said neighbor Lisa Eklund.


Additional details about the child and the balloon were not immediately available.

Update: Balloon landed and the boy was not inside it.

Balloon landed. No child inside??

Pictures of the balloon:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/slideshow/news/21307208/detail.html

Uh oh...where'd he go? :eek:

What a trip. Either it's very sad - the boy fell in flight - or it's weird - a hoax.

Hindsight is 20/20 but that's some kind of booby trap to leave around the house.

Some one is going to jail over this one. If I lived in that town I'd be screaming for the parent's head.

Hopefully he jumped out early enough. If he waited til 50 or 100 feet, he's probably a goner. :(

Rescuers and paramedics are with a "homemade flying saucer" that came down in a field in Weld County this afternoon, but the fate of a 6-year-old boy who was on board is unknown.

Rescuers on the ground told their dispatcher the boy was not inside when they searched the downed balloon.

Officials and the boy's family had said he was in the gondola when it went airborne this morning; it's unclear what happened to the boy, and the search is now expanding on the ground.

The incident started this morning in Fort Collins when the boy got into the balloon-like device built by his father and it came loose from a tether.

The balloon craft belongs to Richard Heene, whose son, Falcon, is now missing. The Larimer County

Read a 2007 Denver Post story about the boy's father, who is a severe-weather chaser.

Sheriff's Office said the "homemade flying saucer" was made out of plywood and string and was never intended for flight.

Officials from Larimer, Weld and Adams counties worked this afternoon with the Federal Aviation Administration and assistance from the 9News helicopter to track the balloon.

Margie Martinez, spokesperson for the Weld County Sheriff's Department, said during the flight that officials were not sure the boy was still in the balloon. She said they are sure the child was in the balloon when it took off, but that it was impossible to look into the gondola during flight.

Larimer County spokesperson Eloise Campanella said that shortly after the balloon took off, search and rescue personnel searched the neighborhood where the young boy lived, including the boy's home and nearby residences. She said that given the fact that the child was not found in the balloon, the search will now widen.

"We are pulling out all the stops," said Campanella.

Crews on the ground are asking for all terrain vehicles to help in the search.

Richard Heene is an amateur scientist based out of Fort Collins. He and his partners call themselves the "psyience detectives."

Heene is a storm chaser who collects data to prove that rotating storms create their own magnetic fields.

He began his research in 2002 with lab experiments, then moved on to dust devils. In 2005, he flew a plane around Hurricane Wilma's perimeter. He took The Denver Post with chasing storms in 2007.

Heeme and his wife, Mayumi Heene, have sons Ryo and Bradford in addition to Falcon.

Last year they were featured on the ABC TV series "WifeSwap."

The news stories are now saying the homemade gondala was not attached when they recovered the balloon. I doubt this is going to have a happy ending. I hope this careless publicity hound father gets sent to the joint.

Deputy saw a box fall:

http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=125161&catid=222

Boy found in the attic of the family garage. He was never in the balloon.

The whole story will be interesting. If it was a prank by the boys I am sure they never had any inkling it would turn into a national event. All I know is that I felt LOT better when the boy turned up OK.:D

I heard that the family was on some TV show called "Wife Swap". Nice.

You, sir, are grounded! :D

Can you find anything else in the media with more non-factual information?

Every single statement made was simply BS.

Further proof that the average person is a moron.........all involved with this incident are a bunch of morons.