Wouldn't balloon Dad have KNOWN how much weight the thing could carry?

[Zix]

It's not established yet what it's carrying capacity was but...

Well, gosh, it's pretty darned small.

And, uh, Dad did build it.

[slackmaster]

1. Yes

I think he new damn well the kid was never aboard.

[MNDemNY]

4. Yup.

[Zix]

7. I think you're right.

Oooh.

[snagglepuss]

9. It seems that the father would have known immediately that the basket

wasn't attached and he never said anything so I think it was staged or else he realized quickly that this is great publicity and potentially a movie.

[DesertRat]

17. I watched the episode of Wife Swap which featured this family

Both parents are publicity hounds. They don't send the children to school. They "educate" them by driving around chasing storms and searching for UFOs. It wouldn't surprise me if this whole thing was a set up.

[snagglepuss]

18. If its a set up its so effing manipulative. It was so horrifying to think a child

would be in that situation and I felt sick thinking about what a nightmare it would be for the parents.

[Ms. Toad]

23. There's a video on MSNBC this morning - dad launching balloon . . .

and no basket.

[Rick Myers]

14. The dad that had his kids do this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBWJXXgaYBo

The guy is a freak.

[Engineer4Obama]

2. You mean the baloon dad that performed expirements on psychics to find UFOs?

That Dad?

[spanone]

6. performed what expirements (sic) on psychics?

[Engineer4Obama]

10. I'm just basing this on what the lady on The Ed show said

This was the woman who lived with this family when they did the Wife Swap show. Ed asked about what the family was like and what kind of experiments the dad did. She responded that since she was a psychic they tried to use her to find UFOs. I wish I was kidding.

[Zix]

11. Ooo, did he? I didnt know that. But...

Presumably (that's a "presumably") this wouldn't preclude basic aerodynamics...

[ecstatic]

3. The parents lied. They knew there was no separate basket or a way to ride in it

I wonder if the media will call them on it.

[ddeclue]

5. Dad's gonna have to answer some FAA questions.

[Duer 157099]

8. Either way he's screwn

If he *did* know then it proves willful deception and abuse of public resources.

If he *didn't* know then it proves he's a hack pseudoscientist.

[NYC_SKP]

12. He should, he's either deviant or negligent.

Either way he should be held responsible for the cost.

[eShirl]

13. If he were a competent scientist, yes.

[timeforpeace]

19. He searches for extraterrestrials in clouds. Nuf sed.

[NRaleighLiberal]

15. first thing I thought of. No way that careening inflated pie plate could have carried the weight.

[Zix]

16. It lost all its helium after ... what... a couple of hours? 4?

Hm.

[ladjf]

20. Even if dad wasn't a trained physicist, he could have tested the

lifting capacity in five minutes. My guess is that he clearly knew that the balloon was incapable of lifting 45 to 50 lbs.

[AlGore-08.com]

21. If you watch this guy's "Psyience detectives" videos on You Tube, I would say "No"

In this one, he looks at photos of Mars from NASA, and decides rocks are really "pig snouts" and SUVs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-6S0OMkiTE

In this one, he manages to screw up the basics of the 2012 conspiracy theory and is constantly corrected by two other idiots on an ugly plywood fake news set:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2d-7pDcoY8

So I would guess figuring out whether his mylar balloon could carry off his 6 year old son was not within his skill set.

[LisaL]

22. During the interview this morning he claimed there were

electronics on this thing that should have kept it hovering 20 feet above the ground. Sounds like something quite sophisticated to me.

[bertman]

24. Everybody look at these shiny, jangly keys!! All eyes over here!! Ignore the real news

of the day.