“Apparently he’s been there the whole time,’’ Alderden said.
The boy’s father, Richard Heene, said that the family was tinkering with the balloon yesterday, and that he had earlier scolded Falcon for getting inside a compartment on the craft.
He said Falcon’s brother had seen him inside the compartment before it took off, leading him to believe the boy was in there when it launched.
But the boy had fled to the attic at some point after the scolding and was never in the balloon during its two-hour, 50-mile journey through two counties.
“I yelled at him,’’ Heene said as he hugged his son during a news conference. “I’m really sorry I yelled at him.’’
“I was in the attic, and he scared me because he yelled at me,’’ Falcon said. “That’s why I went in the attic.’’
Richard Heene adamantly denied the notion that the whole thing was a big publicity stunt.
“That’s horrible after the crap we just went through,’’ he said. “No.’’
The flying-saucer-like craft tipped precariously at times before gliding to the ground in a field. With the child nowhere in sight, investigators searched the balloon’s path.
Several people reported seeing something fall from the craft while it was in the air, and yellow crime-scene tape was placed around the home.
Neighbor Bob Licko, 65, said he was leaving home when he heard commotion in the family’s backyard. He said he saw two boys on the roof with a camera, commenting about their brother.
“One of the boys yelled to me that his brother was way up in the air,’’ Licko said.
Licko said the boy’s mother seemed distraught that the boy’s father was running around the house. The Poudre School District in Fort Collins, where the boys attend, did not have classes for elementary schools yesterday because of a teacher work day.
The boys’ parents are storm chasers who have appeared twice in the ABC reality show “Wife Swap,’’ most recently in March.
