October 15, 2009 10:22 PM UTC

Kid in a Homemade Balloon Thread

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• by: Colorado Pols

Good God Almighty.

UPDATE #3: The Denver Post reporting the boy was hiding in the attic because he thought he had done something bad:

“He’s been located! He’s alive! He’s at the house!”

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden interrupted a media update in Fort Collins to announce that the 6-year-old boy thought to be missing in a balloon craft has been found alive at his home.

“Apparently, he’s been there the whole time,” Alderden said. “Hiding in a box a cardboard box, in an attic above the garage.”

The sheriff indicated he did not think Falcon Heene’s parents knew the boy was there: “They were besides themselves with worry,” he said.

UPDATE #2: Fort Collins Coloradoan:

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office has taken control of the site southeast of Hudson where the balloon came down. Officials are searching near the intersection of Weld County roads 28 and 41, which is southeast of Platteville. A witness says he saw something fall from the balloon in the area. Law officers also are on scene at a site near Pelican Lakes near Windsor, where a command post is being set up.

UPDATE: 9NEWS:

Authorities are searching 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 on Thursday morning.

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.