07:59 AM CDT on Monday, October 19, 2009
By Hayley Kappes / The Daily News
GALVESTON, Texas—As news spread Thursday of the 6-year-old Colorado boy who authorities believed was carried away by an uncontrollable Mylar helium balloon, George Gould thought details about the incident didn’t add up.
Gould, president of Galveston County’s Experimental Aircraft Association chapter, has operated helium balloons similar to the one involved in last week’s incident and said they can only carry 20 pounds at most.
Sheriff’s officials in Larimer County, Colo., said Sunday that last week’s incident was a hoax carried out by the boy’s parents in order to gain exposure for a television show, according to The Associated Press.
“I was pretty skeptical that anyone could be in that balloon,” Gould said. “That balloon wouldn’t have been able to pick him up off the ground.”
Gould worked in a weather observation office at Scholes International Airport in Galveston, where he would launch weather balloons 3 feet in diameter to determine wind speed and direction.
Altimeters, barometers and GPS devices can be placed in the balloons to transmit atmospheric information, Gould said. Mylar, a strong polyester film as thick as a trash bag, is reflective enough that radars can detect it, Gould said.
Mylar helium balloons also are commonly used by “amateur scientists as more or less a play balloon,” Gould said.
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