In 2009 six-year-old Falcon Heene made headlines after supposedly climbing inside his father’s homemade helium balloon which subsequently became untethered and rapidly descended into the clouds.
Last month the incident was brought back into the public consciousness thanks to it being the subject of an episode of the Netflix series Trainwreck. The family, including Falcon who is now 22, all spoke of the traumatic experience and how the events of that day and the following days affected them.
What happened to Falcon?
It all started in October 2009. Falcon’s father, Richard Heene, had a knack for inventing things and his latest invention was about to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. The father had spent two weeks building a giant helium balloon which he intended to fly above the family’s house while it remained tethered to the ground.
However, the tethers failed to hold the balloon which ended up soaring up into the sky. The worst part was that Falcon had apparently climbed inside before the balloon had taken off. The now frantic parents, Richard and his wife Mayumi, told authorities of the desperate situation and news outlets quickly picked up on the story. The world watched helplessly. However, it would soon be discovered that Falcon was not in the balloon at all, he had actually been in the house the entire time, hiding in a small space above the garage.
The family are accused of staging a hoax
The relief that Falcon was safe was quickly replaced by anger towards the parents. In an appearance on Larry King’s show, the young boy was asked why he didn’t come out of hiding to which he responded “You guys said that we did it for the show.” Falcon’s words were a damning admission that turned all eyes onto the parents who were accused of faking the incident for media attention.
Richard and Mayumi were arrested with the former serving a 90-day prison sentence and pleading guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, while the latter served 20 days behind bars and pleaded guilty to filing a false report.
The public accused the parents of being fame-hungry citing the couple’s decision to appear on an episode of Wife Swap as proof that Richard and Mayumi would do anything for attention. Some even theorized that it was all a ploy to get a reality TV show.
They maintain their innocence
Despite the damning accusations, the family maintained that it wasn’t an intentional hoax in their appearance on Netflix’s Trainwreck. “Why would I even consider doing something that’s going to turn on me, potentially sending me to jail. Like how am I going to get a TV show doing that?” Richard argued.
Meanwhile Falcon Heene claims his words were taken out of context on the Larry King show, “I was six-years-old and all these adults took whatever I said they were able to string together what they thought was something else.”
