Boo would make a great search dog! The team of Sea and Boo, guaranteed to find you! It even rhymes! I hope the little guy is hiding in a bush cuz he's scared he's in big trouble.
BREAKING NEWS
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LARIMER COUNTY - Authorities are searching a specific area in Larimer County for a box that was attached to the bottom of an experimental aircraft that took off from a Fort Collins home with a 6-year-old boy inside after a sheriff's deputy thought he saw something fall in that area.
The Weld County Sheriff's deputy thought he saw something fall in the area around County Road 41 and County Road 28. He believes it came from the bottom of the aircraft.
There is now a very large search in the area, moving through high grass.
The homemade aircraft made an apparent soft landing northeast of Denver International Airport on Thursday afternoon, but rescue crews found no sign of the boy when they reached the aircraft.
When it landed five miles east of Prospect Reservoir, 9NEWS could not see any child rescued from the basket of the balloon, but earlier Fort Collins Police had said they were certain he was still inside.
Police believe the boy, Falcon Heene, was inside the box when the aircraft lifted off around 11 a.m.
Police say there are pegs on the bottom of the aircraft that indicate that a box was attached at some point.
The experimental aircraft, which is a type of balloon filled with helium, was up for nearly three hours and appeared to start to rapidly deflate shortly after 1 p.m.
According to the Larimer County Sheriff's Department, the 6-year-old boy's parents had been building an experimental aircraft which had a large helium balloon attached to it at their home on Fossil Ridge Road in Fort Collins.
On Thursday morning, according to the family and officials, the boy got onto the aircraft and detached the rope holding it in place.
The aircraft was a dome-shaped, 20 foot, 5 foot aircraft covered with foil. As it was flying, it was going about 20-25 mph.
A spokesperson with Fort Collins Police said, "This balloon was never meant to actually carry anybody. It was just a family project they were working on. The little compartment where their son is in is very small and it's not attached very well."
Police say the family's two boys were playing outside with the rest of the family inside the house. One son watched his little brother go inside the compartment and watched the balloon take off.
The Federal Aviation Administration worked to track the aircraft on its radar tower and notified DIA. At one point, a helicopter with the Colorado National Guard was launched to help in the rescue.
Shortly after noon, the Weld County Sheriff's Office said the balloon was seen two miles south of Evans, near County Road 46 and Highway 85.
Closer to 1 p.m., the aircraft was listed as near Hudson.
DIA rerouted northbound flights as a precaution because of the aircraft. There were no delays or cancellations and the airport is back to normal operations.
Sky9 worked with Weld County officials to track the aircraft from the air beginning around noon.
Viewer Lisa Eklund sent photos of an aircraft in the air near her home on Saturn Drive, also in Fort Collins.
The boy's father Richard Heene is a known storm chaser. During an appearance on the television program WifeSwap, Heene and his wife, Mayumi, focused on their love of science.
Last year, the 9NEWS Morning Show interviewed Richard and Mayumi Heene about their passion for storm chasing. Click here to read the story and watch the video.
9NEWS will continue to follow this story and provide updates on 9NEWS.com and 9NEWS at 4, 5 and 6 p.m.
News just said that from the time they spotted and started tracking the balloon, the tethers were visible and there was no box on the bottom. This was about 12:30 or 1.5 hours after lift-off.
this all stinks... there is a basket, there isn't a basket... we do know there is a 6 year old missing... I thought they said that a deputy witnessed something falling off...
It was kinda weird. The sheriff of Larimer County was giving a press conference saying how it was now a "recovery" mission...and they stopped him, went into a huddle, and he came out with 2 thumbs up. Man, I hope nobody gives up on me that quick!
They are interviewing the whole family right now. Falcon said he hid in the attic cuz his dad yelled at him for getting in the balloon and he was afraid if he came out, he would get yelled at again and be in trouble. The parents seem super relieved. The press even asked them if it was a publicity stunt.
Now the frickin' stupid idiotic media is saying they had doubts...ha!
If there was a less than 1% chance that little boy was on that balloon, they did what they needed to do.
the entire thing was a stunt by attention-loving, selfish kids who learned about it from their attention-loving, selfish parents (wife-swap? c'mon!).
the 2 other brothers were on the roof with a video camera recording the stunt - not too concerned it seems.
take them off tv, never mention their names in the news again, and just ignore the entire family. pathetic.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A Colorado sheriff says it was hoax when parents reported that their 6-year-old son was in a flying saucer-like helium balloon hurtling away from their home.
Sheriff Jim Alderden says Richard and Mayumi Heene "put on a very good show for us, and we bought it."
The sheriff says no charges have been filed yet, and the parents aren't under arrest. He says he expects to recommend charges of conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, making a false report to authorities and attempting to influence a public servant.
Some of the most serious charges each carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
He says all three children knew of the Thursday hoax, but likely won't face charges because of their ages. The oldest son is 10.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A sheriff says a Colorado couple's report that their 6-year-old son was in a balloon that was hurtling away from their home was a publicity stunt.
Sheriff Jim Alderden says Richard and Mayumi Heene "put on a very good show for us, and we bought it."
The sheriff says no charges have been filed yet, and the parents aren't under arrest. But he says he expects to recommend charges of conspiracy and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Alderden says interviews with the parents Saturday resulted in enough information to get a warrant to search the house. He says they were looking for computers, e-mails, phone records and financial records.
DENVER - 9NEWS has been asked by many how we decided to cover the story of 6-year-old Falcon Heene and the claim that he was carried off from his Fort Collins home in a helium balloon.
Instead of being in the balloon, Falcon was safe on the ground the entire time and now the Larimer County Sheriff's Office believes it was a hoax and a publicity stunt perpetuated by the Heene family.
An attorney for the Heene family maintains it was not a hoax.
On Thursday around 11 a.m., Richard Heene called our assignment desk and spoke with a news desk editor. Heene told us that his 6-year-old son was in a balloon that had accidentally taken off and asked 9NEWS to launch SKY9 to try and find it.
Our desk editor says he could hear Heene's wife, Mayumi Heene, in the background talking to someone else on the phone. He believed it was a 911 dispatcher.
We took down Heene's number, and after hanging up we let Vice President/News Director Patti Dennis know about the story.
At that time, other producers in the 9NEWS Information Center started making phone calls to the FAA and other agencies to find out what they knew about the balloon. We also called Fort Collins Police, which were unaware of any incident, and attempted to contact the public information officer for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.
Dennis called Richard Heene back and spoke with him on the phone.
"I told him I didn't believe the story," Dennis said.
She asked him for his son's name, school and other confirming information about their family.
"He was crying, said his son's name was Falcon," Dennis said. "Then I asked him, 'Why haven't you called police?' And he said, 'I have. The deputy is here.'"
By that time, sheriff's deputies had arrived at the house.
"I said, 'Put him [the officer] on the phone,'" Dennis said.
A deputy spoke with Dennis directly and she confirmed it was a deputy before asking about the balloon.
The deputy confirmed they were now investigating it as a missing child case.
"When law enforcement tells us they have a missing child, who is likely in danger, we have an obligation to report that to the public," Dennis said. "That's what we have Amber Alerts, for that very reason."
No Amber Alert was issued in Falcon's case because he did not fulfill the specific requirements.
"If he had been in a car, a boat, a motorcycle or any other mode of transportation, we would have covered it," she said.
Sorry, Playa, I didn't see this post til today. No, they are not in jail. I think they are still trying to figure out what to charge them with. Now the FAA is involved...I think these people are in big trouble...poor kids - their role models suck.