March 2023 Blues Vol 39 No. 3

WORDS BY DEPUTY D.S.

WORDS BY DEPUTY D.S. SMITH, RETIRED Before there was a China Balloon, there was Balloon Boy. Richard Heene and Mayumi Iizuka met at an acting school in Hollywood, California, and married in 1997. Heene had tried acting and stand-up comedy without success, and, for a time, he and his wife ran a home business producing demo reels for actors. Heene is also a handyman. Associates described him as a shameless self-promoter who would do almost anything to advance his latest endeavor. Heene became a storm chaser in the 1970s after a storm took the roof off a building he was working on. Heene’s storm chasing has included riding a motorcycle into a tornado and reportedly flying a plane around the perimeter of Hurricane Wilma in 2005. He regularly involved his children in his endeavors, taking them along on UFO-hunting expeditions and storm-chasing missions. The Heenes had three sons named Falcon, Bradford and Ryo. The family had been featured on the reality television show Wife Swap on two occasions, the second time as a fan-favorite choice for the show’s 100th episode. During his time on the show, Heene expressed his belief that humanity descended from aliens and spoke of launching home-made flying saucers into storms. Heene had unsuccessfully sought the media’s interest in a proposed reality show called The Science Detectives, which he envisioned as a documentary series “to investigate the mysteries of science”. Months before the balloon incident Heene had pitched a reality show idea to the television channel TLC, but the network passed on the offer. The Balloon Richard Heene said the saucer-shaped balloon was an early prototype of a vehicle which “people can pull out of their garage and hover above traffic”. He also stated that, once “the high voltage timer” was switched on, the balloon “would emit one million volts every five minutes for one minute” in order to “move left and right horizontal”. The balloon, 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter and 5 feet (1.5 m) high, was constructed from plastic tarps taped together, covered with an aluminum foil and held together with string and duct tape. Its base, in which Falcon allegedly rode, was a box made from a very thin piece of plywood and cardboard on the side, also held together by string and duct tape. Fully inflated, a balloon of this size would contain just over 1,000 cubic feet (28 m3) of helium.[29] Helium’s lift capacity at sea level and 0 °C is 1.113 kg/ m3 (0.07 lbs/ft3) and decreases at higher altitudes and at higher temperatures. The volume of helium in the balloon has been estimated as being able to lift a total load, including the balloon material and the structure beneath it, of 65 pounds (29 kg) at sea level and 48 pounds (22 kg) at 8,000 feet (2,400 m). Fort Collins is at an elevation of about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and the balloon was estimated to have reached 7,000 feet (2,100 m). The Incident The family said they first suspected Falcon Heene was missing when, immediately after the balloon had taken off, Falcon’s brother told them that he had seen the six-year-old climb into the balloon’s basket beforehand. A home video released the following day shows the launch of the balloon. Richard inspects the basket, then his family counts down in unison “three, two, one” before releasing the cord. Apparently believing the balloon to be tethered a few feet from the ground, the family starts screaming in distress when it floats off into the sky. Richard Heene, who can be seen kicking the wood frame that supported the balloon, yelled amidst a myriad of obscene words, “You didn’t put the fucking tether down!” Falcon is nowhere to be seen and nobody mentions the possibility of Falcon being in the balloon. According to initial reports from the sheriff, the family first called the Federal Aviation Administration, although later the sheriff’s office stated that “they had no confirmation that Richard Heene actually made the call to the FAA.” They then called Denver NBC affiliate KUSA-TV; they reportedly requested that the station send a news helicopter to track the balloon’s progress, and then called emergency services. During the call to 911 at 11:29 AM local time (MDT) Richard Heene said, “I don’t know whether it’s possible you guys could detect the electricity that it emits ... it emits a million volts on the outer skin.” The balloon, tracked by helicopters, drifted for 60 miles (97 km), passing through Adams 86 The BLUES The BLUES 87 86 The BLUES The BLUES 87