He's going to wish he fell out of the balloon.

Thank God he's alive and okay.

BUT! Somebody deserves a whoopin' here and I don't think it's the boy. Dad should maybe make sure the flying saucer experiment is a little more secure

Thank heavens for weather balloons and little boys on low news days.

The whole story would have ended a *lot* sooner if the cops that supposedly searched the whole house and determined he wasn't there did a bit of a better job of it.

I hope they're not the same guys they use to execute search warrants :-/

I'd heard about that and even watched as the balloon crash-landed in the field. I hoped he hadn't fallen out. Now, I see, he hasn't.
Someone's going to get a talking-to.

Something just doesn't seem right here.
How could the father have believed the aerostat was capable of lifting the kid, let alone elevating him thousands of feet?
Obviously he knew the volume of the envelope and must have already calculated the lift force.
I'm guessing maybe 65 lbs max at sea level, and that would only achieve neutral buoyancy.

Can't blame the kid.
How can anyone possibly expect a little boy to NOT mess with an unattended giant reflective mylar flying saucer helium balloon!

"Something just doesn't seem right here."
yeah, after seeing the pictures of the balloon I also got that feeling. Also the fact they are involved with reality television shows makes me wonder a little...

Something here doesn't smell right.

Big brothers claimed to have seen little brother crawl inside "balloon" and launch.

Balloon tie down straps are on the extremities.

Dad is described on Adler as "colorful character".

Mom and Dad (and presumably kids) were on reality show Wife Swap.

Balloon doesn't appear to have aerodynamic capacity to launch kid.

Kid found in attic.

Syncro

Boys launch balloon.

6 year old thinks "oh, sh*t" and runs to hide.

Older brother decides on rather poor CYA strategy, lies through teeth.

MSM goes all moist, has several orgasms while playing up non-story.

Punk'd .

"How to fake a UFO sighting" came to mind while looking at the thing.

Does not pass the smell test.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the MSM, our social and intellectual superiors.

And just on the news, Daddy says he won't be "grounded" because he doesn't believe in that.
My BS meter is off the dial.

They tip toed around the "grounded baby UFO" like they expected the mother ship to suddenly show up and tractor beam them into a different dimension.

Apparently the dad is a "Life on Mars" troofer, and the family have appeared on the "Wife Swap" unreality show... twice.

Let me revise my earlier post:

Family comes up with dumb-ass publicity stunt.

Boys launch balloon.

6 year old plays his pre-assigned role and runs to hide.

Older brother plays his pre-assigned role, lies through teeth.

MSM goes all moist, has several orgasms while playing up non-story.

I wish I had a story like this to tell my kids...
oh I have some stories I'll have you know... but not like I tricked half the country into looking for me or anything approaching that.

kinda reminds me of Bart Simpson "Boy in the Well" episode. Bart's walky-talky radio fell down a well, all the msm goes nuts thinking there's a boy stuck in the well as Bart talks through the walky-talky from places unseen... ect.

and Bart doesn't go home to write a letter to Santa that night.
http://www.tv.com/the-simpsons/radio-bart/episode/1333/summary.html

Interesting tidbit!
Did you know most of the worlds helium comes from one small area in Texas/Oklahoma, and is stored in a massive natural underground cavern, originally built to supply airships.

Google "National Helium Reserve"

It's that damn testosterone again! Atta boy, famous for life.

This was an old trick when Bart Simpson did it.

I've got a theory about "parents" who name the offspring Falcon and whatnot....

djb @ 7:05 wins.

Did anyone question the lifting capabilities of this balloon, the media or the police. I know I didn't. Hind sight is 20/20. I was had good.

Wuberman

It wasn't apparent until the mushroom crashed what the scale or design was. Meanwhile, other interesting factoids regarding the folks involved emerged...so to speak.

Syncro

I don't believe this story for a moment, clearly aliens have invaded earth and I fully expect that the Colorado police have three of them in custody.

More details when I have them.

well now we know that space aliens are 6 yo kids in trouble with pa for taking the car, er, balloon keys.

Im waiting for the REAL story on this to come out. a strange creature that, 'reality' TV. the contrived staged and choreographed step-by-step PUBLICITY stunt machine.

the MSM played their part to a T.

"Did you know most of the worlds helium comes from one small area in Texas/Oklahoma, and is stored in a massive natural underground cavern, originally built to supply airships."

Doesn't everybody? ; )

Seriously though, helium is expensive and this kid's father was aware of exactly what the capabilities of his lenticular aerostat were. Supposedly he built it to perform some kind of weather experiment and he knew, as sure is water is wet, that his son wasn't in it.

I agree, something smells. Mom and Dad should get a whopping big bill for the cost of the "rescue".

"Did you know most of the worlds helium..."

The US refused to sell He to Germany (for some mysterious reason in the long-forgotten/ignored past) which partially led to The Hindenburg Disaster. No turkeys died in THAT incident.

A soon to be Myth Busters episode....

And now more Rock and Les Nessmond!

Syncro

@PiperPaul
Fearing Germany would use its Zeppelins for military purposes, the U.S. Congress passed the Helium Control Act in 1927 which prevented the Zeppelin Company from importing helium from the US.

Did not see it myself but heard the Father really gave Wolf Blitzer a tongue lashing for CNN's torquing the story up.

I wish they'd put the balloon back up there with Shep in it.

"A soon to be Myth Busters episode...."

Already been done

My secret sources are convinced that this episode was orchestrated to take the spotlight off His Obamaness walking across the waters of the Arabi ship canal to spiritually bless and cure the returned locals and all those refugee folks scattered across the USA from the Lower Ninth Ward. Questions about what happened to the federal government funds voted for Ninth Ward rebuilding once the money arrived at the state and local level could not be answered due to "time constraints".

I think we all know who's behind all this.

George W. Bush.

Did not see it myself but heard the Father really gave Wolf Blitzer a tongue lashing for CNN's torquing the story up.

That's because Wolf asked Falcon why he was up in the attic for four hours and he said "cuz my Dad said it was a big show", or something to that effect. That went right over Blitzer's head, but when he came back to the question Falcon's brother whispered, "Don't say".

I think Mr. Space Cadet is in panic mode.

Here's the CNN video of the kid spilling the beans.

No doubt that this will all blow up the face of this phony family. Have a look at the two kids to the right of Falcon when he states that it "was for show" - they look straight at Mom - like - oh oh he said something he was not supposed to!!!!

This is one big charade that will blow up in the face of the parents of this family. Ya - been on TV before and want more - much more.

Hopefully the family gets charged for the rescue efforts. Not to mention the concern everyone felt. Makes us all a little more cynical.

I'm actually less cynical...Is that wrong?

Syncro

"Makes us all a little more cynical."

Exactly.. And when I first heard this on the radio, with all the "expert" commentary, I assumed it was some sort of large high altitude balloon with an enclosed gondola. After seeing more video I now realize it was nothing more than a large toy that couldn't take anything larger than a house cat as a passenger.

So....If if I inderstand this correctly...Wacky, attention seeking, bottom feeding pissants attempted to use their kids to cop a dime?

On the other hand the media stuck to this one like white on rice. Interesting that.

And very sad.

Syncro

"...a large toy that couldn't take anything larger than a house cat as a passenger."

Actually, it could probably lift one of Kate's dogs...

I've double-checked my calculations and if the media's reported size of the airship is correct, its volume is/was 1044 cu. ft.

Inflated to pressure with He its lift force (neutral buoyancy) is 54 lbs at 5000 feet. The altitude of Fort Collins, Colorado is 4984 ft.

Henne is either an idiot or a liar if he claims he was certain that his son had flown away.

Because all the early views were of the balloon in the air hence difficult to gauge size, but once it landed and we could see the scale of the craft and the guy running it was obvious that a helium balloon of that size would (might) be able to lift a small cat if that. It is clear that there isn't enough IQ points in ALL the anchors of all the networks to fill a tea cup because there was NEVER any comment by ANY of them - CNN, CTV, CITY, FOX, CBS, NBC - none of them made any comment about the lifting capacity of a SMALL helium balloon like that!!

And NONE of them referenced the possibility of the owner's desire to create a UFO sighting. It is amusing to hear the UFOers' silence on this.

Helium? I thought it was Obama's hot air that kept it afloat.

Parents pay the cost to the public of this prank?

H*ll no! It's free publicity for their next stunt. You call your kid Falcon and you're involved in a "reality" show called "Wife Swap"? The only thing on the agenda is what's next?

I was just glad when I found out the kid was O.K. He hid because he somehow let the balloon loose and panicked. It seemed like a simple enough explanation. Now, it looks as if the key word is "somehow". If his father put him up to some kind of stunt, then he's a real bastard. What's going to happen if disaster really hits these people? Like when these kids grow up exhibiting this behaviour they learned from their parents?

The fact that the entire family went on CNN for an interview just hours after this "ordeal" stinks to high heaven. Add in the "big show" slip (out of the mouth of babes) and it sure smells like Mom & Dad are a couple of attention whores who cooked this entire thing up to get a few more minutes of fame.

I was an intended hoax that went wrong.

they were inventing "an ecofriendly replacement for cars. intended on hovering 20 ft above the ground"
right.

During the heat of the moment in this contrived drama, I heard MSM reporters continually referring to how they and everyone else was praying that the little shit wouldn't be saved unharmed etc. Odd since I believe most of the MSM are atheist, but the point is, there are little boys dying all over the place every day. Few truly care.

In the end what we have is a little asshole who will likely now live to grow up to be a big asshole. Just like most of the population.

:0)

Sorry about the mess in my previous comment.

The bold was to be only on word.

And the "wouldn't be saved" should have read "wouldn't be harmed."

there are helium wells in SE saskatchewan. around the Rapdan area. I think they are depleted now.

helium is a byproduct of uranium decay.

There's no way that flimsy helium balloon would carry a kid of any size