An American 6-year-old set off a massive search-and-rescue operation and media frenzy on Thursday for fear he was inside a home-made helium balloon that broke loose and drifted thousands of feet above Colorado for hours before he was found safe at home.
Falcon Heene was discovered hiding in a box in the attic above his family's garage, hours after the odd silver contraption had deflated and landed softly in a dirt field, Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden said. "Apparently, he's been there the whole time, hiding in a box, a cardboard box, in an attic above the garage," Alderden told reporters after a long and frantic day.
Falcon's older brother had reported seeing him climb inside a compartment on the balloon, which was built by his amateur scientist father and resembled a "flying saucer" spacecraft, before it floated away from the family's home in Fort Collins, Colorado.
US cable news networks interrupted coverage of a town-hall meeting by President Barack Obama to broadcast live footage of the small Mylar airship for two hours as it soared some 50 miles (80 km) east across Colorado, trailed by US National Guard helicopters. Authorities considered desperate measures to bring the craft down safely and, after discovering that Falcon was not inside, had begun scouring the countryside for any sign of the boy.
'THERE WAS A MISHAP' Speaking to reporters outside his home, father Richard Heene said that his older son had watched and videotaped Falcon climbing inside a box attached to the bottom of the apparatus. "This little guy decided to go inside the utility compartment," Heene said of Falcon, who clung to his father during the interview. "Sure enough he got in but obviously he got out so we don't know. He said he was hiding in the attic."
Asked by reporters if he would be billed for the massive search-and-rescue operation amid mounting outrage over the incident, he said simply, "I sure hope not." Heene described the craft as an experimental vehicle that "people can pull out of their garage and hover above traffic 50 to 100 feet," but said the invention was in its early stages. He declined to detail how it broke free of its moorings, saying only: "There was a mishap. I'm not going to lay the blame on anybody. It was supposed to be tethered down and it wasn't tethered down."