Up, Up and Away ... More on Garage Attic Boy's Escapade

Well, it seems that there's some new things brewing, with Garage Attic Boy's escapade yesterday (see our earlier post today, Media Gypped ... Balloon Boy Only Garage Attic Boy).



The Henne family is being investigated for, possibly, pulling off a hoax, thanks, chiefly to the Wolf Blitzer interview, in which Garage Attic Boy, little Falcon, spilled the beans about it being "for the show" (Hmmm ... I wonder if CNN will start promoting themselves as "The Best Balloon Story Team on Television?)

Or, the parents calling a television station, before calling 911.

Libby Spencer, over on The Impolitic, seems to be first on the beat, as to what it may all be about;

It suddenly dawned on me a few minutes ago. If they're testing an experimental balloon, they would want video of the flight. That wouldn't be so easy to get on their own. Sure they could have chased the thing on the ground, but you can't count on constant visual contact from the ground so aerial footage like this would be invaluable. That's not something you could get on the cheap, and maybe not at all, as a private citizen. You would probably even get in trouble for launching without FAA permission. I heard they had to ground flights at a commercial airport at one point.

So voila. "Accidental" launch. Lost kid drama. Helicopter chase crews. It adds up to great documentation of your experimental craft's performance. It's the only thing that makes sense to me.

Oh well ...

No doubt, we'll be hearing more on this over the next few days

It suddenly dawned on us, that we have the perfect soundtrack of this;

The 5th Dimension - Up, Up and Away



Bonus Links

Ezra Klein: Balloon Boy a Hoax?

Kevin Drum: Quote of the Day

Skippy, the bush kangaroo: Balloon Payment