Posted on 10/15/2009 11:51:52 AM PDT by Justaham
A six-year-old boy somehow climbed inside a weather balloon in Ft. Collins, Colorado -- and now the balloon is careening out of control with the boy stuck inside.
(Excerpt) Read more at tmz.com ...
I am watching it, and I am praying that this little boy will be helped down and unharmed. If I was the parents I would be in a horrible panic. My heart goes out to them.
Holy cow!
Another one?!
I doesn’t look like it’s fully inflated. Just enough to get it off the ground.
I’m watching on Fox . . . Shep is about to come on. Poor kid, but I don’t know IF I can take listening to Shep this afternoon, car chases are bad enough.
Oh that’s horrible.
Fingers crossed and prayers up for the little guy. I hope they can find a way to bring him down safely.
What about a drag line with cargo netting? Helicopter?
They are near a base.
Shep happens! just gotta get that kid down safe!
LARIMER COUNTY - Officials in Larimer County are actively searching for a child who literally floated away from his family's home on an experimental aircraft.
According to the Larimer County Sheriff's Department, the 6-year-old boy's family had been building an experimental aircraft which had a large helium balloon attached at their home on Fossil Ridge Road in Fort Collins.
On Thursday morning, according to the family and officials, the boy got onto the aircraft and detached the rope holding it in place.
The aircraft is described by the sheriff's office as a dome-shaped, 20 foot, 5 foot aircraft covered with foil.
Viewer Lisa Eklund sent photos of an aircraft in the air near her home on Saturn Drive, also in Fort Collins.
The Federal Aviation Administration is working to track the aircraft on its radar tower and has notified the Denver International Airport.
Shortly after noon, the Weld County Sheriff's Office said the boy was seen two miles south of Evans, near County Road 46 and Highway 85. Sky9 is now helping track the aircraft which is said to be traveling at least 25 miles per hour.
Aviation Expert Greg Feith spoke to 9NEWS about the process of rescuing the boy.
"It is an unusual event and the big thing now is trying to get that child down from this balloon. It's all going to depend on of course the environment. It's windy outside so it's going to keep it adrift for quite a while. The helium, depending on the size of this thing, if it ran into very cold air, it may help it come down as you know if you left a helium balloon go the higher it gets it'll stagnate only because of the cold air," Feith said.
Feith added that without knowing the structural integrity of the aircraft it is difficult to know how it will withstand any turbulence.
"The other key here is the structural integrity. Not knowing how it's constructed and given the fact that we do have these wind conditions which of course create turbulence we don't know how much turbulence this airship, if you will, can actually withstand so there's a lot of external factors here," he added.
Feith says the military will likely be needed to help with this rescue effort as they are familiar with creative uses of aircrafts to rescue soldiers from difficult locations.
"They've used in that past where they've launched helium balloons to pull guys out of the woods when they've been shot down. Other than that I think they're going to have to let the forces of nature and hopefully a lot of luck bring this airship down safely." 9NEWS Weather Anchor Marty Coniglio, who is also a pilot, also discussed the rescue effort on 9NEWS at Noon.
"It's a clear day... we don't have horrible winds. I'm sure it's frightening for the child but we have what we think is a wind basically out of the northwest at about 15-20 m.p.h., it depends on your altitude," he said.
Sky9 is working with Weld County officials to track the aircraft from the air.
Shep just said California?
We can’t take a chance that he isn’t a terrorist. I hope they have fighter jets scrambled and ready to shoot it down.
He could be a muzzie with a nuclear bomb!
Prayers for the boy and family.
Just a question..do we have anyone besides the 6 year old’s brother that he is in this balloon? Is it possible he’s not in there? You can’t tell looking at it if he’s in there? Maybe he’s hiding somewhere on the ground. Did an adult see him get in? This could all be a couple of boys being pranksters....at least I hope so.
God bless the little guy. I hope this is something he can laugh about in a few years, and nothing more serious than that.
Crazy Idea; Military C-5 Hercules Cargo plane, both nose and tail cargo doors open (can they fly like that?)
Rig a net amidships across the cargo bay.
Come up behind the balloon as slowly as possible and “swallow” it - catching it and the kid in the cargo bay.
Yeah, I know it’s nuts. Brainstorming here....
bttt
Sounds to me like the family was building a phony space saucer with a compartment for a camera or something to do some spoofing.
A helium ballon to lift it on a tether; then take pictures and claim it is a saucer?
The female anchor on CNN is laughing-she thinks this is funny.
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