double post

Thank God he is ok!!!

Bet he won't hide like that again!

Gosh I kept thinking he had fallen and was either hurt, cold & terrified or dead from the fall.

thanks for keeping us posted.

I'd guess panicked!

i really dont care now...the kids ok

what do you know, I was right again

I think most of the people here recognized that as a possibility.

BTW in my post that was 25kg not lbs (that's about 55lbs) got a bit rushed doing all the conversions.

i was right before you were right.

YEAH!!!!!! OMG....I'm glad he's OK!!!!!!

Ooo a pissing contest... where's the popcorn icon I keep seeing, I know I had it before

all a pissin contest gets you is wet feet

How about the possibility of the father making all this trouble in order for the Authorities to get his balloon ?.
I do not trust the guy and the police should investigate his claims word by word .

d.p .

The family does seem sort of odd but the concern seems to be genuine The dad seems like he was terrified and still in shock

im happy as hell the kids safe but the family is goin to far i think..they.. all...all of them will be on larry king tonight..already!!! dads a media hound

I wonder a bit myself, though it could be a rather costly retrieval even if he's not guilty of playing these kinds of games.

It wasnt a hoax. It was just an accident. Dad is sort of odd, but I feel for the guy because you can tell he was terrified and in shock

And smooth soft skin I hear. Could have been a myth.. lol

I don't see that, and if he did it was not a good move because they ripped the thing appart trying to deflate it.

Oh I'm sure it was an accident a balloon like that is a ton of work and to risk losing by someone like that would be beyond my comprehension. But the idea of using the police to track it down once it happened does not seem beyond him. Likely scenario to me is the boy knew it was designed to fly at 20' his dad told him so and he figured he'd climb in and release it and it would just over there around the house or neighborhood. His weight was too much for the balloon so it just sat there... till he got out and the balloon took off without him. Realizing as it disappeared over the house how much trouble he was going to be in he went into hiding.


So I'm saying the father used the police to recover his balloon, just that I could see him doing that. I haven't see any of the interviews with him to see reaction but consider these things. It seems pretty likely that he loves publicity, and there's a pretty good chance he's a fair actor. Now as I mentioned about the time the boy was found the probable capacity of the balloon to me seems out of reach to carry a 7yo child in the thousands of feet. Unless my calculations are pretty far off, the dad should have known that, after all I just went online when I got back to my office and looked up the lifting capacity of helium and did some quick calculations. Pretty safe bet dad went to a lot more effort than that if he'd calculated it to the degree that he planned on it being able to hover around 20ft, that's some pretty exacting calculations.

It is true I could be off and the intended payload could have been much closer to his sons weight. And this of course is all conjecture. Fact is I think it more likely that everything is just as it appears. But I do see some potential possibilities.

I am watching the Larry King interview. Dad thought the balloon was tethered by the wife ,and he was going to make it hover 20 feet off the ground. Little boy Falcon had told his bro he was going to get into the "flying saucer" but had really ran and hid in the attic after being scolded by dad. This guy isnt faking. Its obvious he was under a lot of stress and is still in shock about it all. The guy really seems to be distraught and still off balance about all this I think he feels guilty for scolding his son and seems to blame himself