The boy was not inside the helium aircraft when it landed, CNN affiliate KMGH reported.
A sibling saw the boy get into the craft Thursday morning. Officials were concerned that the boy may have fallen out of it, an undersheriff said.
Erik Nilsson, the Larimer County Emergency manager, said in an interview, that officials might have to shoot the balloon to expedite a landing and prevent the child from getting hypothermia inside the small passenger box. He has been flying for more than two hours.
The bizarre scene played out live on television and prompted fears that the flying saucer-shaped balloon would crash with the young child inside. FAA spokesman Mike Fergus says the agency has been notified and it was unclear whether traffic controllers had picked it up on radar.
Larimer County sheriff’s spokeswoman Eloise Campanella says the device has the potential to rise to 10,000 feet. Sheriff’s officials last saw the device floating south of Milliken, which is about 40 miles north of Denver.
“We were sitting eating, out looking where they normally shoot off hot air balloons. My husband said he saw something. It went over our rooftop. Then we saw the big round balloonish thing, it was spinning,” said neighbor Lisa Eklund.
Flights heading to the north from DIA have been diverted. The Colorado National Guard launched a Blackhawk helicopter and a smaller Kiowa helicopter to try and intercept the balloon.
7News confirmed the boy is the son of Richard and Mayumi Heene appeared on an episode of ABC’s “Wife Swap.”Richard Heene has been described by friends as a sort of “mad scientist.” He is a storm chaser and has a Web site, call The Psyience Detectives, which “investigates the mysteries of science and psychic phenomenon.”
