Boy trapped in balloon above Colorado, Found alive was hiding the whole time

UPDATE **** UPDATE ***** UPDATE *******

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The story line was bizarre, dramatic and terrifying. A 6-year-old boy, trapped inside a helium balloon racing across the Colorado sky at high altitude with very little chance of survival. Thankfully, it wasn't true.

The flying saucer-shaped experimental aircraft drifted away from a backyard in Fort Collins Thursday morning, setting-off a media frenzy amid reports that 6-year-old Falcon Heene, whose father built the contraption, had climbed inside.

According to the family, one of Falcon's brothers told his parents that Falcon climbed into a utility basket attached to the balloon and, somehow, the rope holding it in-place became untied, allowing the balloon to draft away around 11:00 a.m.

Authorities say the balloon may have risen as high as 15,000 feet in altitude as it drifted over Colorado's eastern plains. Around 1:40 p.m., it crashed into an open field near 160th Ave. & County Road 79 in Adams County, approximately 50 miles southeast from where it first took flight.

Concerns the boy was inside the balloon prompted a massive emergency response, and international media coverage. Helicopters tracked the balloon in-flight, waiting for it to come down on its own. Authorities also planned for a possible mid-air rescue, just in case it did not.

Once the balloon crashed without Falcon inside, authorities intensified their search for the child. Reports that something, or perhaps someone, had fallen from the balloon shortly after it took flight only helped fuel speculation that Falcon had suffered a terrible fate.

A little over two hours later, the drama came to an abrupt end.

"He's been located. He's alive. He's at the house," Larimer County Sheriff Alderden told reporters, giving a 'thumbs-up.'

The boy had been hiding inside a cardboard box in the attic of the family's garage, Alderden said.

The Heene family addressed the media a short time later.

"It was in the really early stages of the invention," Richard Heene said of the experimental aircraft, holding Falcon in his arms. "This little guy got inside of it...I thought he did anyway, according to Brad (one of Falcon's two brothers)."

"He videotaped it and we watched it back and, sure enough, he got in," He said. "But obviously he got out."

Richard Heene, a self-described amateur scientist, said the balloon was a "3D-LAV" - an experimental, futuristic low-altitude vehicle that would hover above the ground at an elevation of 50 to 100 feet.

He said there was an electrical charge on the outside of the balloon designed to steer the aircraft.

"Our biggest fear is that he was inside, he would kick the wires and get electrocuted." "This is a relief. We're going to watch him a lot closer," Richard Heene said.

Should the Heene family have to pay for the search-and-rescue operation? Vote Here

The Heene family appeared on the ABC television show "Wife Swap." A website for the show said when the family isn't together chasing storms, "they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm."

A photo of the family on the show's website shows what appears to be the helium saucer in the background.

Falcon's family was last on "Wife Swap" in March, favorites of the audience who had voted to have them featured again on the show's 100th episode. In "Wife Swap," two mothers trade places for a few weeks. Producers try to match families with wildly different attitudes and lifestyles to see if sparks fly.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• flying saucer
• colorado
• craft
• denver post
• home made flying saucer
• fort collins
• weld county
• us federal aviation faa
• Larimer County
• balloon boy
• larimer county
• heene
• cnn
• balloon boy incident a hoax
• denver

[MaestroLestat]

where can I get one of those balloons, I'd like to send my cat Hawk up into the heavens.

[himler42]

just shoot it down!

[UPsideDoWnCS]

this fucking family making fake UFO videos using this ballon

[DaryluzB]

if i was in that balloon i be freaking out like hell

[luerrrr]

i heard that the family originally used it for a fake UFO video

[Balk176176]

Detroit is amazing!!!!!!!!

[Balk176176]

Detorit is amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just saying

[DetroitLove4U]

I wish the balloon would have been got shot down and landed in a volcano.

[Xavi997]

Stellastar5000 calm down dude. He was just joking

[Cr0z2010]

was he trying to get to imagination land?

[geoffbruno]

The medias job isn't to judge which breaking stories are credible at the time they are happening, but rather to present the information and confirmed develomenta to allow the public to make their own decisions

[StellaStar5000]

@MaestroLestat uhm .. you meaann .. your cat ?

YOU BETTER NOT EVEN TRY TO HURT YOUR CAT.

IM FCKING SERIOUS .