**Update 4: Raw home video of yesterday’s balloon launch!;**Update 3: Boy Admits “We did this for a show”; **Update 2: Boy found in his home; **Update: Balloon lands, no sign of child; Breaking Drama in Colorado’s Skies: Boy, 6, stuck in “Flying Saucer” Hot Air balloon

by elpresidente | 10:42 am, October 16, 2009 | 4 Comments

**Breaking News Coverage**

**Case referred to child protection services; audio of family’s 911 call

**RAW VIDEO OF LAUNCH**

Heene family releases home video of yesterday’s launch, father appears to flip out, countdown to launch heard (h/t Complete Colorado)

Hot Air has a roundup of links on the probable hoax angle–family shopping a reality show; family denies incident was a hoax;

Hoax? (via Michelle Malkin):

Obvious question posed at Hot Air:

Imagine if they’d sent the National Guard up there to try to rescue him and a Guardsman fell to his death. Million-dollar exit question: The cops didn’t think to check every room on the property before kicking off an international media frenzy?

**Promoted from the comments–”We obviously need a ‘Helium Balloon Czar’”

More:

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

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden interrupted a media update in Fort Collins showing two thumbs up 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.

Falcon’s 9-year-old brother told investigators and his parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, that Falcon was in the balloon when it went up.

Officials had searched the home and neighborhood, but the initial search did not turn up the boy.

Obviously they didn’t search well enough.

Suppose Falcon has been grounded? I kid.

**boy found in his home

**boy’s family on “Wife Swap”

Falcon Heene, center

**just touched down . . . emergency crews on scene . . . soft landing . . . deflating balloon . . . no sign of the boy . . . no child inside?

Live coverage via 9NEWS or BreitbartTV.

Details coming in:

A 6-year-old boy is floating over northeastern Colorado in a homebuilt balloon and authorities are racing to try and rescue him.

The balloon, in the shape of a flying saucer is covered in foil and filled with helium. The craft’s dimensions are 20-feet across and 5-feet high. It has a compartment for a passenger underneath. It lifted the boy into the air near Fort Collins Thursday morning after the balloon became unhooked at the boy’s home.

“We were sitting eating, out looking where they normally shoot off hot air balloons. My husband said he saw something. It went over our rooftop. Then we saw the big round balloonish thing, it was spinning,” said neighbor Lisa Eklund.

The father and son had apparently been working on the aircraft for some time..

Airtracker 7 located the craft at 12:35 p.m. at about 8,000 feet in Weld County. It appeared to be slightly tilted. The altitude of the balloon was fluctuating between 7,500 and 10,000 feet.

Michelle Malkin has more:

All cable stations have cut away to provide video.

Authorities are now trying to rescue him.

As a mother, I can’t bear to watch. Please pray for this little boy’s safety. Dear Lord.

Comments