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.
UPDATE: 12:39pm PDT– The boy wasn’t on board. Did he fall out? Was he ever on board? Where is he?
CNN is reporting that the family had been on the show ‘Wife Swap.’ WTF?
12:52pm PDT — [Correction] Older brother reported that he saw the boy dart into the balloon. Others thought they saw something fall out. Checking the neighborhood, the boy still hasn’t been found.
1:10pm PDT — Here’s info on the family.
1:15pm PDT — He may never have been on board both because the craft was never designed to hold anyone and as it flew partially deflated you couldn’t see him rolling against the fabric. Also, as someone on CNN just calculated, there probably wasn’t enough helium to lift the boy a mile and a half up.
1:20pm PDT — Sheriff’s Dept reporting the basket wasn’t breached and the boy is assumed to be in the neighborhood.
1:25pm PDT — The father had submitted videos on his theories to CNN.
1:52pm PDT — There may have been a box attached beneath the balloon that the boy got into which was not on during flight. Was this what fell off?
3:09pm PDT — He’s alive and home! No details where he was yet.
3:11pm PDT — He was hiding in a box in the attic of the garage.
Idiot parent trying to hoax a UFO…Cripes.
Hope he makes it.
-He’s 6yrs old here in NYC news..
what a scam…
After seeing the balloon at length on the news, I say it will be found that there is NO kid inside this “conveniently UFO shaped” balloon.
The balloon does not look like it is designed to carry people and on top of that, given that it is covered in a thin skin, we would easily see a lump in the lower portion of the “gondola” if a kid was actually in it.
given “the lack of concern” by the newscasters for the safety of it’s phantom passenger, they all know there is no one inside.
-additionally, we would no doubt have have a strung out mother pleading for the national guard or some such to do something, in the news spots.
Instead, I posit that this is getting to get major air play to mitigate or nullify any near future sightings of saucer shaped UFO’s in the U.S., as there have been quite a few mass sightings in other parts of the world the last several months..
-as most know, only in the U.S. do UFO’s not exist, and any sightings have always been “weather balloons”
I wonder if our government will ever come clean about anything..
soundwash got it right
it all sounds like news bait to me
His daddy told him not to mess but he couldn’t resist. The balloon got away, the boy ran away, he’ll be back when he gets hungry.
racism
Where’s Obama?
Seriously, where’s the kid? …damn…
Gotta change the video feed as it “has concluded”.
Judging from the size, I don’t think balloon had lifting capacity for a 6 year old.
Might be time to look in the basement.
poor kid at first i thought hell yer a little guy sticking it to the man.
now i find out he missing poor fella. i hope the kid is ok.
If I just accidently (or not) released my parents’ experimental space craft, it might be hard to find me too…and if he DID just let it go (and I do hope he did, rather than the horrible other options) will he get grounded?
Man, after watching the music video the dad had the kids make, they all should have fallen out of the balloon. At 30,000 feet.
#3 you’re an idiot if you think that there is conclusive evidence that intelligent life from elsewhere in the universe has ever been to earth.
I’d say the universe is teeming with spacefaring species. When one finally shows up here, it will be the most magnificent unifying event ever to occur to humanity. I hope it happens soon. When it does, you won’t be looking at crappy pictures or listening to hearsay all of which is apparently rigorous enough evidence for you and other UFO whackos.
Also, I am blown away that people can continue to think that our government is capable of keeping this event a secret.
Check Roman Polanski’s house…
Whew, I think you guys are right the kid is hiding under the bed. The UFO hoaxer is going to be stuck with some SAR bill. Hope it was worth it.
At what point will it be revealed that the kid is dead and in the freezer in the father’s basement?
The boy is not in his house. Doesn’t look good.
Pedro, I did think of UP.($$$Lawsuit$$$)
Not necessarily the news.
I truly hope this is not some kind of publicity stunt orchestrated by the parents. If that does turn out to be the case, I fear for the safety of their children.
#13 said
OK, so the pilots and air-traffic controllers that reported them are wackos, and the Nasa astronauts are wackos, ex-presidents of the USA are wackos, military fighter pilots are wackos, ex-pentagon officials are wackos,… That’s one wacky world you live in.
oh and your best statement ‘Also, I am blown away that people can continue to think that our government is capable of keeping this event a secret.’ thanks to people like you, they can.
I like your posts, you crack me up!
#17 – did they look in the freezer?
This is why straight people should not raise kids.
I hope the priests didn’t get him.
#21. That’s cold man.
WmDE (#(9)said, on October 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Judging from the size, I don’t think balloon had lifting capacity for a 6 year old.
Might be time to look in the basement.
That is so very, very obvious it sure makes you wonder what (if anything) the media and rescue people 1) use for brains; or 2) received in the way of education. One thing for sure: they don’t know anything about the physics of ballonning…
Another classic example of why it’s a waste of time to watch anything on tv, or (if you do) believe anything you see.
Judging from the size? There’s a picture of it in the air and in a field, there is nothing to see the scale of it.
..but, seriously, who can say it hasn’t been a great couple hours watching this thing unfold? The freaking most terrifying thoughts if it could be true, every parent getting sick at the idea of how it would feel to be the parent, then thinking how scared you would be to be a kid in a balloon out of control…then the weird tension of no relief that the guy wasn’t in there and hurt or worse…and then the short lived mystery with all the highs and lows and possible ends…and then the best ending ever. Do you remember when you thought hiding in a box over the garage really MIGHT work? It doesn’t really matter what happened…it was an awesome ride…for all of us.
This is all easy to say because nothing horrible really happened…like in any good narrative of fiction.
Shepherd Smith on FOX news was the first to say that maybe the boy’s hiding under the bed when every other news station got into all the drama. Once again, FOX news gets it right.
Here’s my thought, it seems the brothers of the boy had a video camera too. And the dad submits his videos right away. Might it be all set up by the kids. Coming from a news making family into building UFO’s it seems quite plausible.
Could it be that mom and dad throw out hints without telling the older boys directly to do such a thing, they say “yea got it dad” and the little boy is terrorized as he has no clue what’s going on as the brothers say “look what you did, mom and dad will be mad, better hide here in the attic.”
Now worldwide coverage of their news making and their invention, the whole world has seen their balloon and they are soon rich.
Publicity stunt at it’s finest. No one would ever be able to prove anything.
CNN update: the boy was hiding in the attic (and not cut up in pieces in the freezer).
He’s found safe and hiding in the attic fearing punishment for untethering the balloon.
At a MINIMUM they should hold these nuts accountable for launching an aircraft w/o permission. What a waste of taxpayer money — and all the opportunity cost of all the lost time of all the travelers stuck at the airport because flights through the area were postpones. Ridiculous!