[Merged] US: Boy floats away in helium balloon, now missing/Boy found

A license to have children is looking better and better when ya read crap like this.

A$$holes. I followed the story and like most got really suck into the story. Perhaps if I saw rather than read, I may have sussed it out sooner.

I presume the parents will receive a bill for the wasted efforts of the emergency crews?

I hope so.

I was talking to my mom on the phone at this same time this was happening and she was watching it unfold on TV. She was really upset that there might be a little boy in this balloon, so upset I thought she was going to start crying. Meanwhile, I was talking about how some Americans are freaks with their spaceship shaped balloons. After I hung up I felt kind of bad that I was making light of the situation, even though the balloon had come down by the end of our conversation and the boy wasn't in it. I told my husband the boy is probably hiding somewhere because he did something wrong by releasing the balloon and was afraid of getting in trouble for it. I never would have thought the parents could actually be in on it. I stand to my original argument that some people are freaks!

I agree. They are publicity seekers. First Wife Swap, now this. 

That's exactly what I said last night. Attention-seekers. I hope they have to pay for what they've done. Idiots.

A license to have children is looking better and better when ya read crap like this.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/c99e2g

WARNING: Some is NSFW.

Kanye West interrupts this post to say:

"Imma let you finish, but Amelia Aerhart had the best 'Missing From Flight' experience ever!"

Hahahahahahahahhahahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

http://preview.tinyurl.com/c99e2g

WARNING: Some is NSFW.

 

http://preview.tinyurl.com/c99e2g

WARNING: Some is NSFW.

To get on TV...apparently.

To get on TV...apparently.

Because no one would believe that grandma could float.

Because no one would believe that grandma could float.

LOL.  Grandma can't take care of you when you're old though.   

A balloon that size wouldn't have been adequate to lift the boy's weight off the ground in the first place. Mythbusters busted the myth that a child could potentially float away if given a large handful of circus/ fairground helium balloons, as from wikipedia on the season:

"4 year old child can be lifted by a bunch of party balloons. Busted. It would require such a large number of balloons (3,500) to lift an average four-year-old girl of 44 pounds (20 kg) just a few feet off the ground that there is no way the myth could have happened unintentionally "

Now throw in the balloon in question was MUCH smaller by volume than that of 3500 large balloons, and also that the boy is 6 and probably weighs a bit more than 44  lbs and was (reported to be) flying substantially higher than just a few feet from the ground.

They should be investigated for this.  You can lie to people, but you can't lie to physics!

A balloon that size wouldn't have been adequate to lift the boy's weight off the ground in the first place. Mythbusters busted the myth that a child could potentially float away if given a large handful of circus/ fairground helium balloons, as from wikipedia on the season:

Now throw in the balloon in question was MUCH smaller by volume than that of 3500 large balloons, and also that the boy is 6 and probably weighs a bit more than 44  lbs.

They should be investigated for this.  You can lie to people, but you can't lie to physics!

What was the actually size of the balloon?  I haven't seen any dimensions listed but it looked pretty huge from the pictures I saw.

Remember this story?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3365726

That man only had 100 helium balloons tied to him...granted they were REALLY big helium balloons.  He floated over 200 miles, around 13000 feet in the air.  Him and the equipment weighed over 300 lbs.

What was the actually size of the balloon?  I haven't seen any dimensions listed but it looked pretty huge from the pictures I saw.

Remember this story?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3365726

That man only had 100 helium balloons tied to him...granted they were REALLY big helium balloons.  He floated over 200 miles, around 13000 feet in the air.  Him and the equipment weighed over 300 lbs.

Easy. The balloon in the balloon boy incident is reported to be 20 by 5 ft balloon with a volume of 77 cf.   Now the average party balloon, an 11" latex variety, has a volume of .50 cf. So, if the mythbusters proved it would take 3500 balloons to lift a 4 year old girl just a few feet off the ground, that's a volume of helium equating to .50 cf x 3500 = 1750cf required to lift a 4 year old girl weighing 44lbs off the ground by a few feet. Much more would be required given the boy's extra weight and the weight of the craft itsself.

This is why it's impossible for him to have been in the balloon. Simple physics.

Easy. The balloon in the balloon boy incident is reported to be 20 by 5 ft balloon with a volume of 77 cf.   Now the average party balloon, an 11" latex variety, has a volume of .50 cf. So, if the mythbusters proved it would take 3500 balloons to lift a 4 year old girl just a few feet off the ground, that's a volume of helium equating to .50 cf x 3500 = 1750cf required to lift a 4 year old girl weighing 44lbs off the ground by a few feet. Much more would be required given the boy's extra weight and the weight of the craft itsself.

This is why it's impossible for him to have been in the balloon. Simple physics.

OOOOOhhhhh OK.  I hadn't seen any real description of the balloon aside from a story I read that said the family were storm chasers and the balloon was a homemade hot air balloon/weather balloon that had been tied to the ground to keep it down...the boys were playing in the basket and the rope came undone and the balloon floated away.  Not really sure what's true and what's not at this point (considering all the lies surrounding the story) but that story at least made it believable that he could have been inside when it floated away.

Now that I think about it, why would a weather balloon have a basket?

Or is that normal?