3:00PM EST: [LIVE FOOTAGE BELOW] UPDATES BELOW: FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A 6-year-old boy is floating over northeastern Colorado in a homebuilt balloon and authorities are racing to try and rescue him.

The balloon, in the shape of a flying saucer is covered in foil and filled with helium. It has a compartment for a passenger underneath. It lifted the boy into the air near Fort Collins Thursday morning after the balloon became untethered at the boy’s home.

The father and son had apparently been working on the aircraft for some time.

Fort Collins police and other authorities have been alerted and Airtracker 7 has launched in an effort to locate the boy.

Airtracker 7 located the craft at 12:35 p.m. at about 8,000 feet in Weld County. It appeared to be slightly tilted. The altitude of the balloon was fluctuating between 7,500 and 8,500 feet.

Skies in the area are partly cloudy and southwest wind speeds are 15 to 20 miles per hour.

“It is believed the device could rise to 10,000 feet,” said Eloise Campanella, Larimer County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

“The structure at the bottom of the balloon that the boy is in is made of extremely thin plywood and won’t withstand any kind of a crash at all,” said Erik Nilsson, Larimer County Emergency Manager.

Deputies from Larimer and Weld counties are tracking the balloon as it drifts.

FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said the agency has been notified and it was unclear whether traffic controllers had picked it up on radar.

The balloon may drift into air traffic control corridors used by Denver International Airport, based on its current location and direction.

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UPDATE 3:36PM EST: The balloon has just made a soft landing. DEVELOPING…..

UPDATE 3:41PM EST:  The homemade, experimental aircraft made an apparent soft landing about five miles south of Denver International Airport on Thursday afternoon after it took off from a home with a 6-year-old boy inside. When it landed five miles east of Prospect Reservoir, 9NEWS could not see any child rescued from the basket of the balloon, but earlier police had said they were certain he was still inside. The experimental aircraft, which is a type of balloon filled with helium, was up for nearly three hours and appeared to start to rapidly deflate shortly after 1 p.m.

UPDATE 3:53PM EST: According to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department, the 6-year-old boy’s parents had been building an experimental aircraft which had a large helium balloon attached to it at their home on Fossil Ridge Road in Fort Collins.

On Thursday morning, according to the family and officials, the boy got onto the aircraft and detached the rope holding it in place.

The aircraft is described by the sheriff’s office as a dome-shaped, 20 foot, 5 foot aircraft covered with foil.

A spokesperson with Fort Collins Police said, “This balloon was never meant to actually carry anybody. It was just a family project they were working on. The little compartment where their son is in is very small and it’s not attached very well.”

Police say the family’s two boys were playing outside with the rest of the family inside the house. One son watched his little brother go inside the compartment and watched it take off.

The Federal Aviation Administration worked to track the aircraft on its radar tower and notified DIA.

Shortly after noon, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office said the boy was seen two miles south of Evans, near County Road 46 and Highway 85. The aircraft was said to be traveling somewhere between 20-25 mph.

Closer to 1 p.m., the aircraft was listed as near Hudson.

DIA rerouted northbound flights as a precaution because of the aircraft. There were no delays or cancellations and the airport is back to normal operations.

The boy’s father Richard Henne is a known storm chaser.

UPDATE 6:15PM EST: The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office says the boy’s family kept the saucer behind their home on Fossil Ridge Road in Fort Collins. The family initially told officials the boy, identified as Falcon Heene, climbed into the basket attached to the saucer and, somehow, the rope that held the aircraft in place became untied at about 11:00 a.m.

Authorities say the balloon may have risen to an elevation of approximately 15,000 feet as it drifted over Colorado’s eastern plains. Due to high winds in the area, experts say the balloon may have reached speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour.

Two-and a-half hours later, the balloon came down on its own, crashing into an open field near 160th Ave. & County Road 79, in Adams County, approximately 50 miles southeast from where it first took flight.

During a news conference at 4 p.m., Larimer County authorities announced that 6-year-old Falcon Heene was alive and well. He had apparently been hiding inside a cardboard box in the attic of the family’s home.
DEVELOPING STORY….

(Source: Denver Channel 7 News)