Balloon boy pukes during live TV interview

By David Edwards
Friday, October 16th, 2009 -- 8:29 am
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Falcon Heene, the six-year-old boy that many thought was trapped in a runaway balloon, got sick while answering questions on two morning shows Friday.

The Heene family's "balloon saga" has drawn new attention after the child remarked to his father in one interview with CNN Thursday, "You had said we did this for a show," a comment his father quickly disavowed.

After being questioned about the comment, Falcon said he felt sick during an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer. He was then led offstage.

The incident occurs with about 1:33 left in the clip.

In an interview with Good Morning America Friday, the local sheriff said that filing a false report -- if the family knew that the child wasn't aboard the balloon -- could be a misdemeanor offense.

Story continues below...

Asked if it was a hoax, Falcon's flustered father, Richard Heene said, "Absolutely not, absolutely not."

"Now I'm starting to get a little ticked off," Heene retorted. "What do I have to gain about this. I'm not selling anything. I'm not advertising anything."

Police said they didn't initially search the attic of the house where the boy was hiding.

This video is from ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today Show, broadcast Oct. 15, 2009.



Download video via RawReplay.com

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Story comments are below...

  • benchaiya
    the dad looks like a douche bag that beats up his wife and kids PERIOD!

    this was all show! they just want their 15mins of fame. what a loser family..
  • kelly
    this family is messed up and they will do anything to get on t.v..I also think that they drugged the boy. I mean look at him he looks drunk.
  • phelicks
    philedrifter is right. This family watched this unfold on TV and had full knowledge that there was no way this child could have been inside the sealed object they were seeing on the news coverage, yet they said nothing to the authorities. They just allowed it to play out and they endangered a good number of people's lives who respond to such incidents. If, as they clamed later, the kid was in some kind of cardboard box gondala, it wasn't there when the news picked up on it with their video coverage and they should have said something to call off all attempts to rescue an "empty" balloon.
    These people are fakes and they need to be charged for this asinine stunt, and the authorities need to find someone in thier ranks with the common sense enough to put this all into perspective.
  • michaelclemens
    Colorado officials must be stupid! The dad launched the balloon there was no basket. There was no outward indentation that would have been visible because of the boy's weight. A scientist also would ask or test if the uplift was sufficient to lift the boy's weight. Maybe this can be tested by Mythbusters Discovery Channel show. If the boy was in the inside the enclosed balloon, he would have have suffocated in the helium.
  • boggeyman666
    The mother and father are big time SICK. Who else would appear on Swapping Wives or whatever its called, or Hollywood inventions of a matching ilk, the purpose of which is only to demonstrate a gigantic need to call attention to oneself. And now this farce with the helium balloon. They are certainly the laughingstock of their community. They should be the laughingstock of the nation.
    The children they are raising will turn out sicker than they are.
  • mariej788
    Does any one care about this kid during this entire interview?? Hey mom grab your kids and take care of him! Did these kids sleep, or were they interviewing all night?? Parents of the year!
  • So! It was a hoax, huh?
  • jules123
    And who enjoys watching a child be ill, this is sad when our news consists of this. Give these people a break please, we have more serious matters to read about, remember there are two wars going on and people are dying.
  • buckqjohnson
    I commented yesterday that I believed this was a hoax and it's looking like it was. Another thing that should set people to notice was sometime after the boy made that comment Wolff went back to the comment and asked the dad to relay the question of what did he mean about it and he wouldn't. In fact he started to him and haw and almost seem to be trying to make up some type of argument to not ask the question. In fact he did what others do when asked tough questions, try to attack the interviewer.
  • mamazboy
    the father was gearing up to sell this as a video, like the fake "terror" footage he posts on youtube. i say bill him and the family for the waste of emergency services on this obvious hoax.
  • I love it. A 6 yr old boy takes advantage of the media and exposes the Morning news shows as what total douchenozzles Diane Sawyer and Meredith are.

    Of course the news networks will do anything and cover anything besides the real news of this country that affects millions of people: war, the economy, bank fraud, etc.

    Time to move on and let that family be.
  • trippin
    Christ: some village is missing a family of idiots.

    Your fifteen minutes are up.
  • imdougandirule
    Great example! Teach your kid to lie as soon as possible.

    What a world.
  • anothergreenbus
    Exactly! There is a profound kind of cynicism behind what these new-American families do. I reminds me of the Palin clan. It makes me want to blow chow just watching the psychopaths the kid has for parents.
  • I posted immediately once the "dick in a box" was found.

    I could tell the father was lying when he was holding his kid and answering questions. He was evasive and avoiding eye contact. I told my partner that the father was lying. The parents are complete, wife-swapping media whores. They should have to pay every penny spent on the rescue.

    I love how their story is changing as it goes along. At first they said that they were not near the ballon when it got loose. Now their own video shows that to be a lie. Now the 6 year-old admits that they did it for a show--and his dad nearly shits himself--lol.

    After this anti-gay video I call it karma bitch!!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7vfqvgGap0
  • Noperiod
    That's my reaction to Dane Sawyer too.
    She's a Nixon administration troll.
  • Gorgeous George Orwell
    Ummm, I have a question - why did the father construct a balloon that looked like a flying saucer? His son Falcon even called it that. Local news dispensed with this tidbit as the family's "science experiment". Just what was the experiment - mass hysteria?
  • christoofar
    The look on his brothers face when he said that he might vomit.
    Priceless!

    And yeah the dad's a dips**t.
  • gmc111
    he was about to jump up - to try to avoid the vomit from his kid ->, i tire of this pair of F%^&$.
  • donow
    what a train wreck - get these people off the air
  • Phil E. Drifter
    Indeed. This is yesterday's news. I can't understand why anyone thought the kid would be aboard; you'd need a balloon the size of a hot air balloon to carry a person, even if it was only a kid. The balloon was far too small to provide lift for any human, not to mention...the father built it, it was a closed system. There is no way ANYONE could be inside of it.

    Regardless of whether or not they press charges, they should still bill this douche for all the emergency services that were rolled out after it.

    If he claims he thought the child was inside of it, he's lying. File charges.

    Open and shut. next case please. I have no time for babbling morons.
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