FireMedic65 Posted October 16, 2009 Posted October 16, 2009 Dad says it wasn't a stunt. I wonder if he made that statement before or after he found out how much the search would cost? They diverted aircraft, scrambled jets and helos, and shut down Denver Airport for a time. Still not buying it. http://news.yahoo.co..._boy_in_balloon Of course he said it wasn't a stunt It would be really stupid if he said "omg you fell for it hahaha losers!" then they hand him the bill.
Eydawn Posted October 16, 2009 Author Posted October 16, 2009 Alright! Kiddo was found safe and sound. I can't begin to tell you how relieved we all are... some of us were very afraid that we were going to be recovering a dead kid. Never fun for anyone. Here's some of the inside info, and I would like to state that this is my opinion and does not necessarily reflect any official statement by the sheriff's office my SAR team operates under, and also does not represent any official statement by SAR. This is purely from my perspective as a SAR member for your entertainment and edification. All indicators initially were that the kid HAD actually gotten into the balloon. You believe the witness until there's reason to believe otherwise, even if your best witness is a 9 y/o kid... once the balloon came down (props to the folks waiting for the balloon, that was handled GREAT) and the kid wasn't in it was when the focus of the incident changed. And yes, that balloon was large enough to lift 40lbs, which is what the little guy weighs. I also was evaluating balloon motion and thought that the erratic listing indicated a load. Right after the balloon came down, local SAR on the launching end was put on standby for a search. There was also simultaneously an eyewitness report in Weld County that something had fallen from the balloon over by Platteville, and so immediate search by Weld County folks was initiated there in case the object was the kid. This was a HUGE multiagency incident. We even had OEM coming in at one point in Weld County, according to the radio traffic I was listening to. Which meant that things took a little longer... we had local FD, local PD, local Sheriff, SAR, national guard, media... it was a big operation!! Once the gears got turning, they decided they needed SAR, and we were paged out. We ended up staging in a local neighborhood park surrounded by media sharks and it was determined that we'd send up a SAR member with each media helicopter we had available to be trained eyes in the sky. Note to any non helo media reading this: if I *TELL* you to get out of the backfield when we're landing a helicopter, you BETTER listen! Same with bystanders. I swear to you I was pulling people out of bushes less than 5 feet from our landing zone, as other members of the team were bringing the choppers in. Drove me crazy... We really wanted to get a dog team out right away to search the house. We were declined. For the sake of politics, I'm not saying who declined. But it was really frustrating, especially for our dog folks who have made multiple "kid missing" finds at the home with use of a dog. So they were getting ready to deploy us as though the kid had run away/crash landed nearby, and we had just broken into teams when our lead hopped out of the command truck with a big grin. Safe and sound!!! I'm telling you, this kid couldn't have hidden better if he had tried... and in hindsight, we're probably going to be a lot more insistent about bringing in dogs way earlier in the future. As to whether the kid let the balloon go and then hid, or tried to get in and got back out, or whether his brothers did it and tried to cover tracks by saying he was in it, we'll never know... I would also like to emphatically state that this was NOT a publicity stunt. You didn't see the parents, obviously, or you wouldn't be saying that it was a stunt... it was just a genuine "whoopsie" that really could have happened to any backyard balloon enthusiast. It's only riveting because the balloon was home-made and looked like a UFO. I'm sure the family will be keeping the kids away from any potentially mobile science projects in the future. This was kid stupidity and a bit of parent stupidity, but it was not a ploy for attention. PM me if you want more info... Wendy CO EMT-B 2
JPINFV Posted October 16, 2009 Posted October 16, 2009 (edited) All indicators initially were that the kid HAD actually gotten into the balloon. You believe the witness until there's reason to believe otherwise, even if your best witness is a 9 y/o kid... "We did this for show." -Falcon We really wanted to get a dog team out right away to search the house. We were declined. For the sake of politics, I'm not saying who declined. Survey says, daddy. Edited October 16, 2009 by JPINFV 2
Eydawn Posted October 16, 2009 Author Posted October 16, 2009 We'll see what the official investigation reveals. I must say though, that'll be pretty expensive if it was staged... Wendy CO EMT-B
JPINFV Posted October 16, 2009 Posted October 16, 2009 pwn3d You're slowing down gramps. I've gotcha beat by over an hour on the Youtube link.
Dustdevil Posted October 16, 2009 Posted October 16, 2009 You're slowing down gramps. I've gotcha beat by over an hour on the Youtube link. I know. I got it from your post. But you FAILED at embedding the video, so I fixed it for ya.
scott33 Posted October 16, 2009 Posted October 16, 2009 (edited) Hmmm. Listening to the attached interview, and others I have seen, I believe there is something more to the story. Listen to the bit when the kid says "I did it for the show". There is a pause, and then the Mother says "No" in a whimpering tone in which she is clearly trying to guide his answers. Followed by a long sigh by the father. His subsequent interviews denying any foul-play are, at his own admission, short of minute-to-minute details, and surely I can't be the only one to think he is a piss-poor actor. The rap video on You Tube, the appearance on the reality TV show, the photo of the Mother with the not-so-cheap professional ENG camera, the father's story about the balloon being an experiment for future travel in which he only had a small window to get the balloon airborne... Glad it ended without loss of life and all that, but perhaps, just perhaps, this was nothing more than a little home-made adventure for the family's video library, which ended up being taken too far. Given the costs and logistics involved with the rescue operation, not to mention the potential risk for loss of life, if they were indeed going to have someone attempt an air-air rescue, I think questions should continue to be asked of the family. EPIC PARENTING FAIL! Edited October 16, 2009 by scott33
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