Si vous êtes aérostier amateur n'enguelez pas vos enfants

Ft. Collins boy believed to aboard balloon found at home
By Kieran Nicholson, Howard Pankratz and John Ingold
The Denver Post

FORT COLLINS — "He's been located! He's alive! He's at the house!"

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden interrupted a media update in Fort Collins showing two thumbs up to announce that the 6-year-old boy thought to be missing in a balloon craft has been found at his home.

"Apparently, he's been there the whole time," Alderden said, "hiding in a box — a cardboard box — in an attic above the garage."

The sheriff indicated that he did not think Falcon Heene's parents knew the boy was there. "They were beside themselves with worry," he said.

Falcon's older brother told investigators and his parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, that Falcon was in the balloon when it went up.

Officials had searched the home and neighborhood, but the initial search did not turn up the boy.

Alderden pointed out that it is not uncommon for children to hide when they learn people are looking for them because they don't want to get into trouble.

Richard Heene told reporters gathered outside his house that the experimental craft was designed so people could pull out of the garage and float above traffic on the way to work.

Falcon had been getting into the box that holds all the batteries, and Heene said he had yelled at him for doing that.

"He said he was hiding in the attic because I yelled at him. I am really sorry I yelled at him," Heene said, his voice breaking, "but we got him back."

He added: "This is a relief. We are going to watch him a lot closer."

Falcon said: "I was in the attic. He scared me, and he yelled at me. That's why I went into the attic because I thought I would get in trouble."

Heene said the area above the garage is not like a true attic but rafters and rough planks with drywall and PVC pipes sticking up. He said Falcon climbed up the pipe to get to his hiding place.

There is still some confusion about what his brothers reported, what actually happened

Rescuers swarmed the downed balloon craft today, believing that a 6-year-old boy was on board. (9News)and how the craft got loose.

Heene thanked the searchers and everyone on the scene.

The incident began this morning when it was reported that Falcon got into the balloon-like craft built by his father, and it came loose from a tether.

The Sheriff's Office said the "homemade flying saucer" was made of plywood and string.

Bob Licko, 65, a neighbor, told the Associated Press that he was leaving home when he heard a commotion in the backyard.

He said he saw two boys on the roof with a camera, commenting about their brother.

"One of the boys yelled to me that his brother was way up in the air," Licko said.

Licko said the boys' mother seemed distraught and that the boys' father was running

A rescuer grabs a cable to help stop a balloon that floated away from a home in Fort Collins and flew for hours before finally coming down in a Weld County field. (9News | )around the house.

Officials from Larimer, Weld and Adams counties worked this afternoon with the Federal Aviation Administration — and assistance from the 9News helicopter — to track the balloon. It was aloft about three hours, sometimes drifting as high as 8,000 feet.

The balloon traveled about 50 miles during its flight and hit estimated speeds of about 30 mph. At times, it gained altitudes and then dropped as it flew in and out of rising thermals.

It made a soft landing in a Weld County field. When Falcon was not found with the balloon, a massive search for him was launched from Fort Collins across Weld County to the Adams County border.

Alderden said the box or basket that Falcon was thought to have crawled into was still attached to the balloon when it was found, although it was damaged.

Larimer County put out a reverse-911 call asking people to be on the lookout for Falcon.

Crews on the ground in Weld asked for all-terrain vehicles, four-wheel drives and horses to help search working farmlands and hilly pastures.

Firefighters and police from various departments were searching wide areas in both Larimer and Weld counties, keeping track of "grids" as they moved along.

Margie Martinez, spokesperson for the Weld County Sheriff's Office, said that during the flight, officials were not sure the boy was still in the balloon because it was impossible to look into the basket.

Transportation Safety Board dispatched an air-safety investigator to assist local law-enforcement authorities early on as the balloon incident unfolded, but late this afternoon, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said since the child was found alive, the agency would probably not pursue an investigation.

"Because the aircraft was not boarded with the intention of flight, this event does not qualify as an accident, according to NTSB's definition," Knudson said. "While an NTSB investigator responded to the scene (of the downed balloon) immediately and has been working with local authorities, we have not opened a formal investigation."

Richard Heene is an amateur scientist based out of Fort Collins. He and his partners call themselves the "psyience detectives." He is a storm chaser who collects data to prove that rotating storms create their own magnetic fields.

He began his research in 2002 with lab experiments, then moved on to dust devils. In 2005, he flew a plane around Hurricane Wilma's perimeter. He took The Denver Post with him while chasing storms in 2007.

Neighbors of the Heenes on Fossil Ridge Drive described an eccentric but kind family.

Marc Friedland, who lives nextdoor, described Richard Heene as always tinkering on interesting things, even if Friedland couldn't grasp exactly what their purpose was.

"They're unusual, yes," Friedland said. " But they're great. We like them a lot."

The Heenes have two other sons in addition to Falcon — Bradford 10, and Ryo, 8.

They were recently been featured on the ABC-TV series "Wife Swap."

In a promotion for one of the Heene episodes, "Wife Swap" described the family this way: "When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm."