6-year-old missing balloon boy found alive
Update 5:10pm: It appears the 6-year-old boy has been found alive. Reports are he was hiding at home in the garage attic.
And of course, there's already a T-Shirt.
PH
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
This one is too bizarre to be believed, and may be just as tragic.
Authorities in Colorado are still trying to piece together a strange set of events surrounding a 6-year-old boy in Colorado who appears to have launched himself thousands of feet into the air in a homemade weather balloon.
Reports are that 6-year-old Falcon Heene was launched from his back yard in Fort Collins, Colorado in a homemade weather balloon that was airborne for about two hours. The balloon crashed in a field some distance southeast of Fort Collins.
The cable networks are wall to wall with coverage on this today.
The story is even more bizarre as this family was featured on the show "Wife Swap" recently. The family members are amateur storm chasers. The Denver Post did a feature on the family in 2007.
Witnesses say they saw an object fall from the balloon during the flight. The Denver Post has a photo of something that appears to be falling from the balloon. It is feared the boy may have been inside. The ballon landed in a field near Platteville, Colorado southeast of Fort Collins after a two hour flight.
I'm not making light of this, but this definitely falls under the category of "don't try this at home." The NWS takes great care in launching weather balloons and they do not send people up in the air to collect weather data.
I'll have more on this today as events unfold.
PH