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Thursday, October 15, 2009
DEVELOPING: Officials are scrambling to figure out how to rescue a 6-year-old boy who climbed into a homemade balloon before it floated away in Fort Collins, Colo.
The bizarre scene played out live on television and prompted fears that the flying saucer-shaped balloon would crash with the young child inside. FAA spokesman Mike Fergus says the agency has been notified and it was unclear whether traffic controllers had picked it up on radar.
Larimer County sheriff's spokeswoman Eloise Campanella says the device has the potential to rise to 10,000 feet. Sheriff's officials last saw the device floating south of Milliken, which is about 40 miles north of Denver. The craft is reportedly traveling at about 25 miles per hour.
The FAA is now clearing airspace near Denver International Airport.
Bill Hughes, owner of Blue Sky Balloons, a New York-based hot air balloon company, said there's two ways the balloon could potentially descend — by its occupant releasing some of the gas inside or someone adding weight to it in some way.
"One of those things would cause it to descend," Hughes told Fox News Channel.
"We were sitting eating, out looking where they normally shoot off hot air balloons. My husband said he saw something. It went over our rooftop. Then we saw the big round balloonish thing, it was spinning," said neighbor Lisa Eklund.
Additional details about the child and the balloon were not immediately available.
DEVELOPING: Officials are scrambling to figure out how to rescue a 6-year-old boy who climbed into a homemade balloon before it floated away in Fort Collins, Colo.
The bizarre scene played out live on television and prompted fears that the flying saucer-shaped balloon would crash with the young child inside. FAA spokesman Mike Fergus says the agency has been notified and it was unclear whether traffic controllers had picked it up on radar.
Larimer County sheriff's spokeswoman Eloise Campanella says the device has the potential to rise to 10,000 feet. Sheriff's officials last saw the device floating south of Milliken, which is about 40 miles north of Denver. The craft is reportedly traveling at about 25 miles per hour.
The FAA is now clearing airspace near Denver International Airport.
Bill Hughes, owner of Blue Sky Balloons, a New York-based hot air balloon company, said there's two ways the balloon could potentially descend — by its occupant releasing some of the gas inside or someone adding weight to it in some way.
"One of those things would cause it to descend," Hughes told Fox News Channel.
"We were sitting eating, out looking where they normally shoot off hot air balloons. My husband said he saw something. It went over our rooftop. Then we saw the big round balloonish thing, it was spinning," said neighbor Lisa Eklund.
Additional details about the child and the balloon were not immediately available.
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