Hot air balloon drama preempts Obama; Update: Where is the boy?; Update: Punked?!; Update: “We did this for a show”
Scroll for updates…something reeks…balloonboy tells the truth…”We did it for the show”…
President Obama was on the tube when a truly breath-taking and horrible drama overtook him.
There’s a 6-year-old boy stuck in a homemade hot air ballon vehicle floating over the skies near Denver.
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.
An errant experimental aircraft attached to a helium hot-air balloon is racing uncontrollably through the Weld County skies today, reportedly with a 6-year-old boy alone inside.
The aircraft, a silver flying-saucer shape, launched from Fort Collins and has been sighted near Weld County roads 46 and 33, about 2 miles northeast of Gilcrest. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
***
UPDATES:
» At about 12:30 p.m., the aircraft was sighted near Weld County roads 32 and 39, about 7 miles east of Platteville, according to KOA.
» 12:55 p.m.: The aircraft is approaching Interstate 76 near the Keenesburg Cutoff, which is Weld County Road 49. This location is near Hudson, which is in south Weld County. 9News is reporting that the aircraft is at about 8,500 feet altitude.
Via Jeff Quinton: CNN reporting that officials fear boy may no longer be in the balloon.
3:20pm Eastern: Balloon rapidly losing helium. Has descended from about 8500 ft altitude down to 6500 ft.
Couldn’t watch it any longer. Twitter abuzz with news that the boy is not in the balloon.
Which should be a relief, but isn’t.
Where is he?
***
Oh, crikey: Found hiding in the attic.
Hmmmm…
Hmmm…if your son had been missing for hours, would you start out a press conference plugging your 3DLEV?!?!
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The little boy tells the truth (via HA headlines) when asked why he didn’t come out of the attic: “You guys said that, um, we did this for a show.”
Rest of the video, in which Father Heene feigns indignance at being delicately questioned by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about the boy’s disclosure, is at Breitbart TV.
One more hmmm…
Richard Heene, in addition to attaining a level of reality TV fame on ABC’s “Wife Swap,” has his own amateur video series on YouTube in which he sizes up various pop culture phenomena.
For each topic, from the Loch Ness monster to Britney Spears’ chest, he asks the question “fake or real?”
…Richard Heene’s “Fake or Real” videos are little more than amusing first-person rants, delivered solo directly into the camera and typically lasting barely a minute.
In one video, dated Jan. 18, 2008, Heene takes on the airplane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr.
“I don’t know why it would make any sense to me,” Heene says, while driving in a car.
It often is difficult to tell if Heene is joking or being serious. In another clip he makes fun of people who say they see life on Mars.
“I want you guys to let me know,” he says before going into a five minute tirade with a NASA photo of Mars’ surface on his computer screen.
Using computer photo software he zooms in on random images and points out what could be “signs of life” — a bone, a skeleton key, eyes, high-rise buildings and a miniature skull, just to name a few.
Chiropractors, teleportation inventors and even Hilary Clinton (is she a reptile?) face similar treatment through Heene’s lens.
Click here to watch some of the videos on YouTube.
But Heene’s brief “Fake or Real” segments are only appetizers compared to some of the other video productions in which has been involved.
Heene also is part of a Web site called thepsyiencedetectives.com. Videos on YouTube show him and two others debating science and pseudo-science issues, such as UFOs, as if auditioning for both Comedy Central and the Discovery Channel.
But while the Web site is prominently displayed and referred to during their videos, a search for the site Thursday night turned up a blank page.
If a criminal investigation hasn’t been initiated, it will be now.
The Storm Chasers are Fame Chasers who manipulated their kids into thinking they were “making a movie” — and then paraded them before hungry news outlets to continue the charade after wasting precious law enforcement and rescue resources.
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I forgot to add the most important point here, Marc:
Michelle is a mom.
My Kingfish called and isn’t feeling good.
He has serious back spinal issues.
pure – Tell him we miss him and hope he gets better quick.
Pure:
I became a dad not a homosexual. Jeeezzz. Meghan McCain is great. I love much of her politics and she’s a pretty girl. Honestly a bit chunky for my tastes, but… b00bies… dr00l…
Anyhoo, as far as balloon boy, what can I say? I called it. I would also bet that alien/storm/camera chasing attention whore parents put him up to it but we will never get the full story on that.
Pure:
PS. I hope KF feels better soon, let him know I send my regards.
Sorry to hear that, PA. There’s no pain like having spinal-back issues.
zero – I find it difficult to express just how uninterested I am in your interest in M McCain’s breasts. I have no intrest in Ms RINO, including her hooters.
swede:
Ghey.
Pure:
I am shocked! Shocked and appalled!
He is a new father.
To be fair, the “father” angle might not be all that important, Chap. Moreso since some folks hereabouts consider you more of a “Mother”.
(And may I point out that’s my 2nd double entendre pun re: Chap this eve..)
Praise Obama, he’s safe. Obama solves yet another problem. What can’t he do.
zero – No, just stopped stopped making crude public references to women after about sophmore year in college, but knock yourself out.
peep – Are we having pun yet?
Well, I am a wild and punny guy, swede!
(And I’m of all Swede ancestry, to boot)
But I wasn’t aware that Chappy had recently become a dad
, since I hop in and out of the comment threads here. That’s really something to be brag on – belated congrats to him and Mrs.Chap. May their little one be healthy, happy and see many, many wonderful years!
swede:
Hence the beauty of the internetz and anon (also allows us to get feisty with each other without fear of anyone getting punched in teh face).
In any case, Meghan knew what she was doing and no doubt wanted the attention. She deserves it, she’s hot.
Harrupmh, ZA! I don’t even make mention of the gals whom I consider hotties.
Errrr….nevermind my earlier reference in this thread to Julie Newmar…..
/me is the new dad.
Chap’s response to the query, “Do you have any kids?” has been, “Hell no.” I am thinking that means, “No and no plans currently.”
So, ZA, Is you sayin’ they’s no little Chappie or Chappette?
You do realize, don’t you, that Boston Baked Beans are a kind of candy? Google it.
http://www.ferrarapan.com/html/bb_history.html
And remember, AlohaGuy, to try the new “Li Hing Mui” flavored Boston Baked Beans.
Hmmm. Wonder how Thunderbirds would’ve handled this.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Anything that preempts Obama has to be good.
May I say without a shadow of a doubt that reality television is about anything but reality. Just jumping through the above clip was beyond stupid. Confrontations are fleshed out by the reality (the only one) that a camera (cameras) are ready to record every moment and if you want to keep off the cutting room floor then outrageous behavior is the ticket. I have zero interest in these shows because they are the opposite of what they claim.
And if this was a hoax then this family and/or the show’s producers on down need to pay for any costs rung up by public officials in trying to end a tragedy that purposely never was.
As soon as I saw the story, I knew it was as phony as Hillary Clinton’s Bosnian adventure. This was not like the boy in the well 20 years ago in Texas. The parents in Texas were not reality TV showboats but young parents in Texas and the firemen who did rescue work could see and hear the little kid. This balloon story was too good to be true for media folks who love a wild ride with the heartstrings pulled. Did nobody ask the following: How likely is it that parents would have a hot air balloon that could be untethered by a six year old boy? Would not the balloon be locked in a special place where the child could not get at it? How many six year old kids would know how to escape from his parents and siblings, then untether the balloon, get it skyworthy and then get in it and take off without anybody seeing him and then managing to control the balloon so that it would fly hundreds of miles at 8500 feet in the sky? C’mon everybody! Puhleez be skeptical of media hype. If you believed this nonsense, then you can get tickets for the bearded lady and the boy with three arms when they appear at the local carny. Now for Michelle, I am so surprised that you too fell for this story that I have a terrible fear that when I awaken tomorrow, you will be writing a column about the brilliance of the Obama health plan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really, isn’t that best for everyone involved?
Aaaaand…apparently I am not the only one that should never be allowed to procreate.
My initial reaction is that Mom and Dad need to be bankrupted with fines and thrown in jail. Those kids might be better off in responsible adults care.
“So, ZA, Is you sayin’ they’s no little Chappie or Chappette?”
Yeah, but then who would the nextgen of MM commenters have to pick on? What about the children??
All I can say, Marc, is to suggest you contact the media and offer your precognitive powers. I’m sure they’ll wanna set you up with your own latter-day Criswell Predicts program.
Didn’t anyone else think that weather balloon looked like a mushroom?
Never underestimate the power of maternal instinct to overpower other considerations.
Probably because she is an uninteresting person and not all that bright.
I still think it is somewhat sacrilegious to be making lewd comments about first ladies and daughters, even prospective first ladies and daughters.
But then, zero doesn’t believe in sacrilege.
Who would have ever made comments about Tricia or Julie Nixon’s boobies?
Actually, that was an attempt at damage control.
How come I never got one?
But we had Seven-Up popsicles. (not for Halloween)
OMG! I hadn’t thought about those for a long time! They were good!
I never knew what all those strange sounding holidays were on the printed calendars until maybe after college.
Anybody remember the little trick-or-treat pumpkin-shaped plastic baskets with a black plastic cord for the handle?
I saw part of the interview and was completely disgusted by this whole family. The father is a moron and the kids were never taught how to behave. After a few minutes, I thought there is no way that this moron could have built something capable of lifting carrying people. The kids kept refering to this balloon as a flying saucer and this father was talking about charging it with a million volts? He called it his invention-oh yea, he invented balloons. I think there should be criminal prosecution here, because someone in this family (maybe the mother), might still be able to learn not to call 911 and “scream wolf” for attention.
This was a hoex not a hoax. Reality TV D-listers crying for attention in the dim twilight of their 15 minutes.
Now make them pay for the law enforcement effort and all will be forgiven.
In retrospect, it is obvious that the object could not have been carrying the kid and what people claimed had fallen out of the balloon, could not have been a 6yo boy. My rough estimate is that the helium lift was somewhere between 60-70 lbs. at 8500 feet, the most it could have been was 50lbs and 6yo boys weigh between 40-60 lbs. so this balloon and house needed to weigh less than 10lbs which was way too light for all the crap he stored on board. If it was previously hovering at 2500 feet and assuming the gas had 70lbs of lift, the whole rig probably weighed 63lbs. so something weighing 15lbs probably fell off and this balloon rose higher. A 6yo kid will not weigh 15 lbs. Now it makes sense when people said, that he was not in the balloon.
Most parents saw this spectacle and thought how horrible and didn’t think further. That is natural and normal, and the fact that this idiotic family used this sentiment to draw attention to themselves is disgusting. I really think that the parents should be prosecuted and the kids need child protective services.
I was laughing the minute I saw the live feed because I instinctly knew that the craft was incapable of carrying anything over a 15 pound payload – way not enough helium volume, (flat design = high surface area to volume ratio = even worse for lifting stuff). I laughed even harder seeing dozens of emergency vehicles all converging at the ‘landing’ site. Then laughed harder still watching one of them, instead of rushing to check on the boy that wasn’t there, hit the balloon with a shovel to make certain it was really dead or somethin (?).
Informing the FAA turned out to be, serendipituosly, a good move because this was definitely a hazard to local air traffic.
Maybe this stunt will turn people off to reality shows. Now, that would be a happy ending.
Remember this?
i saw that, he probably had 4-5 times more helium and the whole device weighed less.
Pure:
Sacrilege! I’ll bet she knows that dinosaurs and humans didn’t co-exist at the least. That makes her a tad bit smarter than a handful of MM posters! (Not talking about you Pure, don’t get upset)
Oh come on. All I said was b00bies. I even used ‘0’s (zeroes) for the ‘o’s. How can you not comment about the offending pic without mentioning her b00bies? I mean that’s what the whole bust was about. I’ll bet she is going to milk this thing for all it’s worth.
…goodmorning guys.
From the mouths of babes. “You said it was for the show”. And mama quickly retorts “No.”
Trying to teach a 6 year old to lie.
The best part of the day was hearing some of the lame comments by Shep Smith.
Go to Ace of Spades…there is a rap video of these charming lads.
This family should be fined for the cost of the rescue and the problems in aviation flight paths. Hope this is their last 15 minutes of fame.
Here’s to more hot air balloon dramas.
Seems to be a fine line between fame and infamy these days, ala YouTube etc. Clearly crossed here though. Thank God they didn’t actually put the child in danger for their news scam.
Perhaps the Heene’s real mission was to pick up Ward Churchill at UC and fly him back to his planet.
Speaking of balloon drama coverage, what a difference between today and ~65 years ago.
The Japanese launched NINE THOUSAND BOMB BALLOONS at the USA/Canada, (about 1000 made it here), and virtually none of the civilian population knew anything about it at the time nor learned about it after the war was over. In contrast to yesterday, I’m guessing half the country not only knew what was happening within minutes but were WATCHING IT FIRSTHAND!
Sadly, the only victims, (and the only US mainland citizen casualties in WW2!), were some little kids and a woman out in the woods for a church picnic who came across one of them and inadvertantly set it off.
A perky good morning to you.
signed, Meghan McCain’s bOObies.
hmmm; looks like I called it in my earlier comments…
Freak Show
This entire episode stank from the beginning, even before it was revealed as a fraud.
Forget that it was all bullsh*t: even if what happened was real, my first thought was, “What kind of parents let their kids do something like this?”
“What’cha doin’ up there, sonny?”
“Oh, just putting the finishing touches on a large, helium-filled balloon that can lift one of us thousands of feet in the air.”
“Oh, OK.”
My sympathy doesn’t extend to morons who would display such a la-de-da attitude toward their childrens’ safety. Anger is the order of the day for such people.
And anger is still the order of the day for them, now that it’s revealed that they recklessly if not purposely played on the emotions of others and wasted important search and rescue resources on nothing more than a mentally ill publicity stunt.
I learned of this hoax while at a meeting and heard people glued to a news station hysterics as if this was 9/11/2001. It was so obvious a fraud that I just turned away in despair that intelligent people could fall for his balderdash. How convenient that a usable helium balloon was not tethered properly so that a six year old could figure out how to untether it and then would know how to get in the basket and set the balloon flying into the sky and that the dad would have constructed it so well that it could take a six year old safely into the sky but the same dad would not know enough to properly tether the balloon or to keep it safely away from his six year old son. And how convenient that the dad just happened to know how to phone the FAA and warn the FAA. Might he not have learned where to call the FAA way in advance? This whole thinks stinks to high heaven in more ways than one. And I am quite happy that I ignored it with the same indifference that I usually reserve for the New York Times.