Posted on 10/15/2009 11:45:55 AM PDT by Arec Barrwin
Rescuers are tracking and chasing a "homemade flying saucer" that is in flight with a 6-year-old, by himself, on board.
The incident started this morning in Fort Collins when the boy got into the balloon-like device, which was built by an adult, and it came loose from a tether, according to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.
The contraption could rise as high as 10,000 feet, the sheriff's office said.
The home-made flying saucer was last seen in flight over Weld County.
The sheriff's office is working the Federal Aviation Administration to determine how to best get the boy down.
The homemade airplane was tethered in Fort Collins when the boy got onboard and it floated away. (Lisa Ecklund via 9News)
The six-year-old boy was by himself on board the hommade aircraft. (Courtesy Lisa Ecklund, via 9News)
The craft could fly as high as 10,000 feet, according to the Weld County Sheriff's Office. (Lisa Ecklund via 9News)
Oh dear God. This is the first I've heard of a basket.
Here is a video from CNN of the father, Richard Heene on an unrelated story about Mars.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-65548
The Lord knows where the smallest sparrow has fallen..
I’m trying to have hope about this. I know angels intercede: I’ve seen it with my own eyes a LOT.
Please, Angels, bring us back this child.
Here is a video from CNN of the father, Richard Heene on an unrelated story about Mars.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-65548
Which video? Link?
YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBWJXXgaYBo
That’s it, then.
I am very sad. Sad for the boy himself and sad for his brothers, who no doubt participated somehow.
I would like to bring the parents up on child endangerment charges, having read what I’ve read about them here.
Fox31 reporter is saying that the basket IS still attached to the balloon, but crushed.
And they were also talking about “wind chill” for someone in the balloon. Ridiculous.
There was some damage on the balloon. Damage was done to where the boy would have been on the balloon. It had been thought that the box became detached, but they have confirmed that the box is still attached, but damaged. Per local news (The Denver Channel; 7News).
Have a couple of thousand hours piloting a balloon. That would make most people an expert at it.
In the photo you can see the top of a tree, the ballon appears higher than the tree and the object is well below the ballon. dark dot or oval they can’t tell what it is.
does anyone have a live feed from Denver?
Absolutely not! We prayed for a safe landing and even tho the child was not in the craft...it glided to earth like a feather.
Point is...had the child been in there..he WOULD have survived.
sw
TWC has been showing a photo of something having fallen off the saucer right in the beginning.
WTF??? Fox 31 at the house of the parents reporting sheriff says a basket was still attached at the time of landing. No longer looking for a basket. Moving news reporters away from the house down the street some distance.
The Weld County Sheriff’s deputy thought he saw something fall in the area around County Road 41 and County Road 28. He believes it came from the bottom of the aircraft.
There is now a very large search in the area, moving through high grass.
9NEWS has a digital picture of the balloon showing some sort of black object underneath it. Experts we talked to do not think the speck is a bird or something on the camera lens.
Police believe the boy, Falcon Heene, was inside the box, which the family called a battery compartment, when the aircraft lifted off around 11 a.m.
More at the link
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=125161&catid=339
1 cubic meter of helium at sea level has a lift of about 1 kg, and 1 cubic meter of helium is equivalent to 35.3 cubic feet.
The ballon had a capacity of 1570 cubic feet. Divide that by 35.3 cubic feet it had 45 kilos of lift or 112 pounds minus the weight of the craft. It had enough to get the boy up.
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