A 6-year-old boy climbed into a homemade balloon aircraft and floated away Thursday, forcing officials to scramble to figure out how to rescue the boy as he hurled through the air.
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.
“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***
The 6-year-old Colorado boy who is believed to have set adrift a helium balloon Thursday, prompting ground and air searches, has been found alive, authorities said.
Falcon Heene was found in a box in the attic of his family’s Fort Collins home, according to authorities.
People across the world watched Thursday as the homemade helium balloon soared 7,000 feet over eastern Colorado for more than an hour and a half.
A sibling said he saw the Falcon get into the craft Thursday morning, authorities said.
But the boy was not inside the craft when it made a soft landing near Keenesburg, about 60 miles from its starting point, at 1:35 p.m. (3:35 p.m. ET). See the balloon’s path ยป
Shortly after the landing, authorities launched a ground search and suggested that Falcon never took off in the balloon.
Originally posted 2009-10-15 12:01:53.
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