Balloon trickster is short on cash
Court delays full payment to charity for another month
The sentencing of a Calgary man who soared over the city in a lawnchair strapped to helium balloons has been delayed because he hasn’t yet made a voluntary charitable donation.
Dubbed the “balloon-atic” for his July 5, 2015, stunt, Daniel Boria was supposed to pay $20,000 to the veterans’ food bank by Friday.
But defence lawyer Alain Hepner said his client has so far only been able to come up with half the money and needs another month to make the payment.
“I have $10,000 of that amount in my trust account,” Hepner told provincial court Judge Bruce Fraser.
“Business has been a little rough for the company,” the lawyer said. “He’s asking another 30 days to get that done.”
Boria, 27, pleaded guilty in December to a charge of dangerous operation of an aircraft.
Because Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz proceeded by summary conviction, the maximum penalty Boria faces is six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
But since Boria agreed to make the charitable donation as well, the prosecutor agreed with Hepner a sufficient punishment would be the maximum fine.
Fraser said the donation will have to be made before Boria returns to court on March 17.
“He’ll have to do it by that date,” Fraser told Hepner.
“That’s part of the joint submission.”
During Boria’s sentencing hearing, Dalidowicz said the offender rode a lawn chair hooked to helium balloons at a height in excess of 13,000 feet as part of a stunt which was supposed to see him land by parachute in the Calgary Stampede rodeo.
Dalidowicz said Boria risked the lives of passengers on incoming and departing flights by taking his homemade aircraft above Calgary’s skies.
“In a scenario where an aircraft travelling at 300 km/ h makes contact with an uncontrollable object weighing 150-200 pounds, the results would be catastrophic damage to the airframe, engine and/ or control surfaces,” Dalidowicz continued.
“Of greatest concern would be that the cockpit windshields may be compromised and one or both flight crew members become incapacitated,” he said.
“This scenario could result in the loss of the aircraft and the lives of those on board.”
Dalidowicz said Boria took off from the now-closed Highland golf course in northwest Calgary and floated over the city heading toward Stampede Park.
He hooked up more than 100 helium filled balloons to a Canadian Tire-bought lawn chair and cut his tether, taking off to the skies.
But Boria miscalculated his landing and instead of parachuting into the rodeo grounds he landed near the 1600 block of Ogden Rd. S.E.
Dalidowicz said Boria paid more than $13,300 to put his flying contraption together.
He said air traffic controllers at Calgary International Airport initially spotted Boria’s aircraft rapidly rising from the ground, but started to lose sight of him as he rose into scattered clouds at around 4,000 feet.
The tower had to advise an incoming WestJet flight of the dangerous balloon cluster, the prosecutor said.
“They were last observed at about 7,000 feet from ground level at an 11 o’clock position to the incoming airplane, before tower controllers lost sight of them completely as they climbed through another layer of clouds.”
Dalidowicz said the stunt was extremely risky for both Boria and the general public.
“Some have called him a balloonatic,” he said.
Hepner noted his client fully co-operated with police when arrested shortly after parachuting to the ground.
“He gave a complete confession,” the lawyer said.