So, Thursday October 15th, I was reading CNN.com, as I usually do each day, and perusing the day’s comments on Twitter, and along comes this breaking story about a 6 year old boy who was trapped in a home-made hot air balloon, which accidentally broke away from the ground and was soaring seven thousand feet over the northern Colorado skies… a parent’s worst nightmare, right? The boy’s older brother had told police that he saw his brother enter the balloon, and then it lifted off the ground.
The entire country stopped what it was doing for several hours that afternoon, from 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, until after 7 p.m., there was nothing on any of the news networks, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, all had commercial-free coverage of this breaking story.
The National Guard dispatched several helicopters to circle the balloon, and ground troops were working on “rescue” plans, that ranged from dropping parachute-outfitted rescuers to try to grab the tethers, to some sort of “net” that could capture the balloon, to all sorts of scenarios. The specifications given of the balloon’s construction showed that there was no way the “basket” could survive any sort of crash landing, being made of mostly plywood. The goal was to try to get this poor child out while the balloon was still in the air…
Each network brought in “experts” in various areas, from the National Guard, to experts in hot air balloons, physicists, pilots, you name it – they were there giving their opinions. As the coverage unfolded, most experts agreed that the way the balloon was listing in the air, the way it was affected by winds, would indicate that it did not have a person inside. Also, doubts arose whether the balloon could have even lifted off with a 60 pound child inside.
When the balloon finally landed softly in a freshly plowed field near Denver International Airport, and the news was that there was nobody inside, the stories turned to the possibility that the child fell out of the balloon sometime after liftoff. A picture was shown on screen that appeared to have an object falling from the balloon, shortly after it left the house. The father had reportedly stated to authorities that there was a “module” of some sort that was attached, but not there when it landed, leading to the theory that the “basket” holding the boy had fallen off in flight.
The parents were reported to have spoken to the Sheriff of Larimer County, and the Sheriff was on record saying that she believed them, that they were truly worried their child was aboard the balloon when it took off.
During the Twitter-fest, in which hundreds of thousands of Twitter users were tweeting updates for hours, Miles O’Brien, former Space Reporter for CNN, tweeted: “It is a gut feeling that this is a hoax. Maybe it is wishful thinking. family of “balloon boy” appeared on wife swap – dad rides bikes into hurricanes. Submitted for your consideration.”
A lot of twitter folks found the URL that showed the family had been on this show (that I’ve never heard of) called “Wife Swap”, which is some sort of “reality” (yeah right) show, and the URL to that was tossed out every few minutes. Then stories began to come up that this father was a storm chaser, extremely strange, “mad scientist” as referred to by his neighbors, and had been trying to get a reality program picked up by some networks. Not a good thing for credibility… While I think most people wanted to believe that this was all a big accident, many people began to speculate whether this wasn’t some horrible, awful publicity stunt.
Who on earth would do such a stunt though? It was unthinkable to many. Would any parent honestly call the police and say their little baby was trapped in a home made balloon that was flying wild in the skies with no way to get it down? Seriously, isn’t that insane? I’m not a parent, but from the responses on Twitter that afternoon from parents all over the country, and even the world, it was a nightmare… and nobody saw how it could possibly have a happy ending if this child was truly inside.
Yet, after the balloon landed, and it was empty, while the Deputy Sheriff maintained that she believed the family, the news coverage turned to the fact that this family had been on a reality show, and newscasters were focusing on the fact that the 6 year old boy had still not been found. Obviously, the police had searched the house, the garage, the grounds around the house, and the search had grown to involve more people, cover more ground, and became more organized, focusing on a path that the balloon would have taken after liftoff, with the dreaded thought that the child had fallen out.
Let’s think about the resources that were used up during this time: News shows had continuous coverage of this event, not breaking for commercials of any kind for over 3 hours. Now, sure we all hate commercials, but the fact is, they do pay for the shows we watch. They are an evil necessity. Then, the local police: They mobilized every member of the department, and surrounding counties and agencies were brought in as well to aid in the search. The Army National Guard was mobilized; helicopters were in the air, fuel was expended trying to catch and then keep up with this wild-flying balloon.
I can’t even begin to imagine the financial total all of these things adds up to, but I would guess it is far more than a hundred thousand dollars.
Finally, the child was found! At first no details were given, just that he had been “found alive”. Then, details came out, the child was found in the attic of the garage! What was he doing there? It turns out he was hiding… supposedly because he was afraid that he’d be in trouble for setting the balloon free.
Well, at least he was safe, right? That was the overwhelming sentiment that evening, as the news programs finally broke for commercials, and turned to other news.
But obviously, this whole event made this family instant “news fodder”, and shows all over scrambled to get them on their program: The Today Show, Good Morning America, even Larry King Live. And the family didn’t seem to have any problem doing these rounds. But when the child – named Falcon (who the hell names their kid “Falcon”?) – was asked by Larry what happened, the child evidently said “We did it for the show.” Wait… what? What “show”? What did he mean? And as the kid appeared on other shows, he was sick, throwing up on camera during one show when the host asked him what happened. More than once, he referred to this “show”… and thus, the truth began to emerge.
The whole thing was, as Miles speculated late that first afternoon, a stunt. A giant publicity stunt, a big joke perpetrated on the American public by this publicity-seeking father. The wife finally admitted it to police, after several days of questioning. And the police planned on charging the family with, at the very least, a class 3 misdemeanor, which the Deputy Sheriff said hardly seemed like a serious enough charge. The Sheriff was going to consult with the FAA, to see if there were any federal charges that could be filed as well. Unbelievable…
These children basically told the world that their little baby was trapped in a wild flying balloon, most probably dead… and it was all for a laugh? To get them on some television show? Please.
As the investigation continues, I certainly hope that serious charges will be filed, I hope this family has to repay all the expenses accrued during this hoax, and I hope that the children are taken away from this family – they obviously are unfit to be parents. My God, seriously?
I’ll update this post as more news comes out…
