-
Falcon Heene - Source: Reuters
A six-year-old boy who set off a massive search and rescue
operation and media frenzy when it was feared he was inside a
homemade helium balloon that broke loose and drifted for hours,
thousands of metres above Colorado, was found safe.
Falcon Heene was discovered hiding in a box in the attic above his
family's garage, hours after the odd silver contraption had
deflated and landed softly in a dirt field, Larimer County Sheriff
James Alderden said.
"Apparently, he's been there the whole time, hiding in a box, a
cardboard box, in an attic above the garage," Alderden told
reporters after a long and frantic day.
Falcon's older brother had reported seeing him climb inside a
compartment attached to the balloon, which was built by his amateur
scientist father and resembled a "flying saucer" spacecraft, before
it floated away from the family's home in Fort Collins,
Colorado.
US cable news networks interrupted coverage of a town-hall meeting
by President Barack Obama to broadcast live footage of the small
Mylar airship for two hours as it soared some 80 km east across
Colorado, trailed by US National Guard helicopters.
Authorities had reportedly considered desperate measures to somehow
bring the craft down safely and, after discovering that Falcon was
not inside, had begun scouring the countryside for any sign of the
boy.
'There was a mishap'
Speaking to reporters outside his home, father Richard Heene said
that his older son had watched and videotaped Falcon climbing
inside a box attached to the bottom of the apparatus.
"This little guy decided to go inside the utility compartment,"
Heene said of Falcon, who clung to his father during the interview.
"Sure enough he got in but obviously he got out so we don't know.
He said he was hiding in the attic."
Asked by reporters if he would be billed for the massive search and
rescue operation amid mounting outrage over the incident, he said
simply: "I sure hope not."
Heene described the craft as an experimental vehicle that "people
can pull out of their garage and hover above traffic 50 to 100
feet" but said the invention was in its early stages.
He declined to detail how it broke free of its moorings, saying
only: "There was a mishap. I'm not going to lay the blame on
anybody. It was supposed to be tethered down and it wasn't tethered
down."
Local authorities, who had searched the Heene home but overlooked
Falcon in the attic, said they had no choice but to assume that he
was aboard the runaway balloon.
"We had to just try and get that thing tracked, disabled or brought
down," Larimer County Sheriff's spokesman Eric Nelson told MSNBC.
"As it turned out, the balloon was deflating itself and we never
had to do that.
Of the failed search for Falcon, Nelson said: "The fact that it
didn't occur to anybody to go up and look in a box in the attic is
in my opinion reasonable."
Heene was described as a storm chaser and amateur scientist who had
involved his wife and sons in his activities. The family also
appeared on the ABC-TV reality show Wife Swap, in which families
switch mothers to deal with family problems.
On its website, ABC described the Heene family as devoting 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."
News reports of the balloon landing
Falcon Heene's parents react to finding him safe and well
Falcon Heene's family are well known in the US as storm
chasers
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
