6 Year Old Boy Floats Away In Dad’s Balloon Aircraft…Life in Danger

 

6 Year Old Floats Away

Breaking News- From Fort Collins, Colorado comes news of a stunning case of child neglect.  

A 6-year-old boy climbed into a homemade balloon aircraft and floated away Thursday, forcing officials to scramble to figure out how to rescue the boy.

Live footage from a local TV helicopter showed the balloon gliding quickly through the air.

Police say that the homemade dome-shaped, 20 foot, 5 foot aircraft (covered with foil) was tethered with a rope while the family constructed it. Some time this morning, the family’s six-year-old son entered the craft and released the rope. Neighbors have spotted the craft nearby, and the Federal Aviation Administration is helping track the aircraft on its radar tower. Denver International Airport has been notified about the situation.

The FAA is reporting that the craft was last spotted twenty-six miles east of Fort Collins in Greeley, Colorado.

The Denver Post says rescuers are chasing it .

There is a stated official concern that the child may have fallen out of the craft, which is about 6000 feet high at this point.

Campanella says the 6-year-old climbed into the access door and was in the airborne device. How a parent could be so careless as to let such a dangerous aircraft be so easily accessible to a small curious child is beyond me.

The dad built the craft, and is a professional storm chaser, so that might explain some things.

I am skeptical of the story, because it seems to me that he may have been set-up by his parents so they could use him as a weight appropriate test pilot, much how NASA used to use dogs and monkeys to test the first spacecraft to orbit the moon.

This is just pure speculation, based on my own experiences as a parent.

I know that things can happen unexpected with small children, but this is unimaginable. The only thing that remotely happened to me like this was when I was 3 years old, and my 4-year-old sister, had gained access to my parent’s car that was parked on a hill in front of my parent’s house.

She convinced me to get in with her, because she was ready to leave, and she wanted to go home and play with me.

She released the emergency brake and the car began to roll down the steep hill, at a high rate of speed. All I remember is crying and wetting my pants because I was so afraid.

She was acting like she was driving, and laughing at me for being frightened, which was heightened by the screams of the adults outside the car.

Luckily for us, a cab driver hit the front of the car, stopping it, right before we could have fallen over a steep cliff on the side of the road.

My parents were great parents, it was just the early 60’s, before a lot of safety measures were put in place to protect kids.

Things happen.

Let’s all hope this young man survives this ordeal, so it can be a deep memory for him, when he is middle aged .

Check back for more updates.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ie0x4tv2tFVwxzfVpFiJG47OvbgwD9BBMR581

UPDATE…12;36 pst ..The craft has landed but the child Falcon, is not inside. The craft had reached an altitude of 10 thousand feet. His fate and whereabouts is currently unknown. Tragic….let’s hope he did not fall out at that altitude, and that he is safe.