Kathy Messick, Larimer County sheriff's spokeswoman, says one of the boy's brothers saw him get into the box or basket, which was attached with pegs.

She says search teams are scouring the area from the house in the direction that the balloon flew. The craft was airborne for more than two hours and glided through two countries.

Messick says investigators are looking into every possibility, including whether the boy was ever in the balloon.

She described the boy, Falcon, as 3 feet tall with dark hair, and said his parents are "very traumatized."

Crews searching for box that was on bottom of aircraft

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.


http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=125161&catid=339

I was watching this unfold on TV this afternoon. I started watching soon after the balloon launched. And honestly, it was the most stressful hour and a half of TV I've seen in a long time. I watched the balloon go from 7000 ft down to the ground. They delayed the broadcast by a couple of minutes before the balloon hit the ground in case it was a terrible scene. At 100 ft. from the ground, I was grabbing onto my chair watching as the balloon hit. The ground crews were following it and they immediately ran to the balloon. The helicopters were circling. It was a fiasco. Soon after, the sheriff confirmed the boy was not in the balloon.

So the question is, where is he?

I cannot wait to find out what happened.

Fox interrupted the scheduled program at about noon and there was much speculation about exactly what, when, how this bizarre event began and if there was any possibility of gaining control of the balloon with a helicopter.
As you said, it was a completely traumatizing
feeling of hopefulness and helplessness. Then with the rescuers grabbing the tethers and pulling it to the ground, there was a sense of success. But the box-platform wasn't attached to the balloon and the mystery was raised to another level and the desperate search began.

I'm glad I missed the drama this afternoon. It doesn't sound like there can be a *happy* ending. That poor family.

Hooray! The boy is okay.

Found in a box in the attic. I haven't read about any reasons for this. Perhaps he accidentally launched the balloon so he hid. If he did...I'd have hidden too. Hug him then spank his bottom. Seriously, I'm so glad that this has had a happy ending.

Perhaps he accidentally launched the balloon so he hid.

I think that is what happened. Oh, his poor parents!