TORONTO — Viewers huddled around TVs and their office computers for hours on Thursday afternoon, glued to reports of a six-year-old boy who may have become trapped in a flying saucer-shaped balloon.
It seemed part classic Disney storyline and part horror novel.
But by the time it gently touched down in a field in Colorado — after being tracked and chased by network TV news choppers and American aviation officials — the boy was not inside.
While the boy was later found safe at home, hiding in a cardboard box above his family's garage, speculation that he had somehow fallen from the balloon during the dramatic flight spread like wildfire over a number of news networks.
During the high drama, as the truck-sized silver mylar and helium contraption sailed into the air, experts drew up exotic plans to bring it down — everything from using an ultra-light plane to dangling an elite rescue member from a helicopter.
All seemed bizarre and dangerous.
A Larimer Country Emergency manager theorized they may have had to shoot it down, so the helium could escape — fearing anyone trapped inside could be suffering from hypothermia.
“We were sitting eating, out looking where they normally shoot off hot air balloons,” eye-witness Lisa Eklund told reporters during the flight.
“My husband said he saw something. It went over our rooftop. Then we saw the big round balloonish thing … it was spinning.”
Early reports were that a young boy had crawled inside, just before it lifted off.
The experimental craft was never designed to carry people. But it did carry an afternoon of news coverage, where minute-by-minute interest extended to Europe.
As aircraft followed it in the sky — at points, the balloon reaching an altitude of 1,830 metres but capable of going much higher — emergency vehicles chased it on the ground.
There were concerns the balloon could have crossed commercial flight paths.
But more than two hours after the homemade craft took off from the Denver backyard belonging to an amateur science and weather investigator, identified as Richard Heene, it came down softly. And empty of Heene’s missing son, Falcon.
Network news channels, including CBC and CNN, which had breathlessly chased the silver balloon, were left slightly perplexed as rescuers didn’t immediately rip it open. Officials seemed to have already realized no child was inside.
