Aircraft Flew Uncontrolled Over Colorado

ANN Realtime Update: 10.15.2009 1930: The boy believed to have been aboard a homemade helium balloon when it flew over the Colorado countryside has been found safe, but hiding in his parent's attic. Ground and air seraches had been scouring the region in search of the boy. The balloon came down about about 40 miles from its starting point without the boy inside.

ANN Realtime Update: 10.15.2009 1638: Larimer County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Eloise Campanella says authorities now believe Facon Heene did not fall from the balloon as it flew over Colorado. "At this point, we are thinking that he did not fall out of the balloon and is somewhere on the ground. The basket itself was not breached. It does not look like he fell out of it, but again, this is all conjecture." 

Original Story:  A 6-year-old boy is missing after he climbed into the enclosed basket of his family's experimental helium balloon, which somehow managed slip it's tether and fly for about 90 minutes over Colorado. The balloon came down near Keenesburg, Colorado early Thursday afternoon local time.

CNN is reporting that Falcon Heene was seen by a sibling climbing into the enclosed basket underneath the homemade balloon before it came loose and flew away from the family home in Fort Collins. The door on the basket was unlocked, and authorities fear the child may have fallen out of the aircraft as it drifted at speeds up to 25 miles per hour up to 7,000 feet agl.

Some witnesses said they saw the balloon tipping precariously.

CNN reports the balloon is about 5 feet high and 20 feet across, resembling a flying saucer. It was made of mylar and filled with helium.  A person familiar with the aircraft told a Denver television station that the floor of the basket was made of thin plywood, and the don't know if it would survive any kind of crash.

FMI: www.faa.gov