2149. Nem tv komfít cseer volt az, hanem kerti
alkalmatosság(1982, California) Larry Walters of
Los Angeles is one of the few to contend for the
Darwin Awards and live to tell the tale. "I have
fulfilled my 20-year dream," said Walters, a
former truck driver for a company that makes TV
commercials. "I'm staying on the ground.
I've proved the thing works."
Larry's boyhood dream was to fly. But fates
conspired to keep him from his dream. He joined the
Air Force, but his poor eyesight disqualified him from
the job of pilot. After he was discharged from the
military, he sat in his backyard watching jets fly
overhead.
He hatched his weather balloon scheme while sitting
outside in his "extremely comfortable" Sears
lawnchair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an
Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered
lawnchair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the
4' diameter balloons with helium. Then he
strapped himself into his lawnchair with some
sandwiches, Miller Lite, and a pellet gun. He figured
he would pop a few of the many balloons when it was
time to descend.
Larry's plan was to sever the anchor and lazily
float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back
yard, where he would enjoy a few hours of flight
before coming back down. But things didn't work
out quite as Larry planned.
When his friends cut the cord anchoring the lawnchair
to his Jeep, he did not float lazily up to 30 feet.
Instead, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a
cannon, pulled by the lift of 42 helium balloons
holding 33 cubic feet of helium each. He didn't
level off at 100 feet, nor did he level off at 1000
feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at
16,000 feet.
At that height he felt he couldn't risk shooting
any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and
really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there,
drifting cold and frightened with his beer and
sandwiches, for more than 14 hours. He crossed the
primary approach corridor of LAX, where Trans World
Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots radioed in reports
of the strange sight.
Eventually he gathered the nerve to shoot a few
balloons, and slowly descended. The hanging tethers
tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a
Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. Larry climbed
to safety, where he was arrested by waiting members of
the LAPD. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter
dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked him why he
had done it. Larry replied nonchalantly, "A man
can't just sit around."
The Federal Aviation Administration was not amused.
Safety Inspector Neal Savoy said, "We know he
broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as
soon as we decide which part it is, a charge will be
filed