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October 15, 2009 10:22 PM UTC

Kid in a Homemade Balloon Thread

  • 74 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Good God Almighty.

UPDATE #3: The Denver Post reporting the boy was hiding in the attic because he thought he had done something bad:

“He’s been located! He’s alive! He’s at the house!”

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden interrupted a media update in Fort Collins to announce that the 6-year-old boy thought to be missing in a balloon craft has been found alive at his home.

“Apparently, he’s been there the whole time,” Alderden said. “Hiding in a box a cardboard box, in an attic above the garage.”

The sheriff indicated he did not think Falcon Heene’s parents knew the boy was there: “They were besides themselves with worry,” he said.

UPDATE #2: Fort Collins Coloradoan:

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office has taken control of the site southeast of Hudson where the balloon came down. Officials are searching near the intersection of Weld County roads 28 and 41, which is southeast of Platteville. A witness says he saw something fall from the balloon in the area. Law officers also are on scene at a site near Pelican Lakes near Windsor, where a command post is being set up.

UPDATE: 9NEWS:

Authorities are searching for a box that was attached to the bottom of an experimental aircraft that took off from a Fort Collins home with a 6-year-old boy inside on Thursday morning.

The homemade aircraft made an apparent soft landing northeast of Denver International Airport on Thursday afternoon, but rescue crews found no sign of the boy when they reached the aircraft.

When it landed five miles east of Prospect Reservoir, 9NEWS could not see any child rescued from the basket of the balloon, but earlier Fort Collins Police had said they were certain he was still inside.

Police believe the boy, Falcon Heene, was inside the box when the aircraft lifted off around 11 a.m.

Police say there are pegs on the bottom of the aircraft that indicate that a box was attached at some point.

The experimental aircraft, which is a type of balloon filled with helium, was up for nearly three hours and appeared to start to rapidly deflate shortly after 1 p.m.

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74 thoughts on “Kid in a Homemade Balloon Thread”

  1. Channel 4 (KCNC) finally got its copter on scene and broke in on regular programming an hour after KUSA and KMGH, but Channels 2 and KDVR-31 are stuck with a still photo.

  3. And this explains an awful lot:

    7News confirmed the boy is the son of Richard and Mayumi Heene appeared on an episode of ABC’s “Wife Swap.”

    Richard Heene has been described by friends as a sort of “mad scientist.” He has a Web site, call The Psyience Detectives, which “investigates the mysteries of science and psychic phenomenon.”

    Uh oh–it was just confirmed there is no one inside. That is awfully good news. But the question is–where’s the kid?

      2. to within 1 mile of the house. They are hoping like LB said below–that he may have jumped out before the balloon got too high in the air, which is why rescuers were initially sort of happily surprised he wasn’t inside.

        1. the basket beneath the balloon wasn’t attached soon after the balloon went aloft — the original picture a neighbor took, and KUSA broadcast, shows the balloon without the basket as it sailed away a hundred or so feet in the air.

          This raises a question — if the family saw any of the footage, they had to know the boy wasn’t “on” the balloon, so why’d they let the nation go crazy for two hours?

            1. Dayle Cedars, who first reported the boy wasn’t aboard the balloon after rescuers tethered it to the ground, said what landed was just the “envelope,” without anything attached that could hold a child.

            2. on the Denver Channel link up in the diary.

              There is no mention of a basket. There are several references to a compartment within the balloon, made of thin plywood and not designed to carry anyone.

          2. I kept trying to figure out where the kid was supposed to be stashed in the balloon since I didn’t see anything obvious that he could be in but they were also saying that there is a compartment inside the balloon so perhaps the parents thought he was in that?

            I just don’t know. This story seems to be getting more confusing by the minute.

            I just hope they find the kid, safe and sound.

    1. That ballon could barely lift an average 6 year old kid, if at all. By my rough calculations the lift capacity of the balloon would be 54 lbs max, including the weight of the balloon itself.

  6. The news has reported that the balloon was 20 feet in diameter and 6 feet tall.

    For the sake of ease let’s use this calculator: http://grapevine.abe.msstate.e…

    R = 10, L = 0, H = 6

    This provides a generous estimate of 905 cubic feet (25.65 m^2) of volume, because the actual shape is squattier than two domes.

    At standard temperature and pressure, the lift can be calculated thusly: Lift(He)=V* 0.067.

    25.63 * 2.329 = 59.69. Adjusted for temperature and pressure (assuming the helium was the same temperature as the outside air), the lift would be 58.5 lbs.

    ((59+459)/(70+459))*(29.95/29.92) * 59.69 = 58.5.

    Subtract 5 lbs for the weight of the balloon and you get 53.5 lbs.

    Average weight of a 6 year old kid is 46 lbs.

    So with generous estimates, it could slowly lift the kid (maybe 4-5 ft/sec), but that doesn’t include the weight of the gondola that the news keeps talking about.

  7. considering they have Prospect Reservoir in Weld County (where the balloon landed) confused with Prospect Lake in Colorado Springs. It’s a hell of a lot farther than 50 miles from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.

        1. It doesn’t happen often on days like today, with a big cap cloud over the divide and rotor clouds over the foothills, but during big storms, we frequently get a low-level jet blowing straight down along the Front Range.

            1. I work with a group that make online training for weather forecasters and other interested people (mostly undergrad meteorolgy majors).

              It’s all free at meted.ucar.edu (though registration is required). Check it out sometime.  

  8. They are showing a picture on 9 News.of something that appears to have fallen off the balloon. Looks like a woman took a picture of it as the balloon was flying over.

    Just hoping the kid was never in it in the first place.  

    1. He should be off the naughty step (time out in my house) when he turns 18.

      Unless it was a stunt by his parents, then I have a different remedy.

        1. I was thinking the worst when I saw that object falling below the balloon in the photo.  

          This is probably one of those times when you really, REALLY want to discipline your child but you are just thanking your lucky stars he/she is alive and well. Lots of mixed emotions I am sure.

          2. Luke 15:11-32

            I’m not much of a bible-thumper, but when you’ve raised kids, this one makes a lot of sense.  You don’t know whether to spank them or hug them, but hugging them is the most important.

            “It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”

            Thank God that the kid was safe and sound.

            Punish him tomorrow.  Hug him today.

        2. To all the fathers out there with ratings to get,

          It’s easy to do, just follow these steps:

          Step one: Cut a hole in a box.

          Step two: Put your kid in that box.

          Step three: Release a giant balloon, immediately notify the media, and watch yourself on TV for the rest of the day.

          And that’s the way you do it.

          It’s my kid in a box!

          Looks like a family that’s been starved for attention after not being on TV for a few weeks.

          1. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty or barring that, waiting until the facts are in before hanging the dad out to dry because he makes an easy target (since he’s sort of a looney?)

            Honestly, can we just pretend to be reality based here and not assume the worst of these people until we know more?

            1. kids get into all sorts of trouble on their own.  Based only on what I read I think the kid did hide on his own.

              For those of you with dangerous things at home (such as guns or experimental aircraft) and small children, please keep them secured.

              1. He said, “I grew up one of four boys. We were lunatics. Ten bucks says the little guy was hiding out and waiting until he figured his parents wouldn’t be mad anymore. That’s what me and my brothers usually did!”

                🙂

              2. I called it a hoax the second it landed, You have to love these lunatics. They call the press when they learn their child may be adrift. Lock them up.

  16. I no longer have a link, but the NYT’s ongoing item about this event included facts about the parents – and a photo of the kid – being on some “Wife Swapping” show.

    For me, that puts a significant ?????? WTF into the story.  

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