UP IN THE AIR
Calgary man ties 100 balloons to a lawn chair and goes for a ride into the clouds. He tells us what happened next,
For Dan Boria, there’s nothing more peaceful than hovering above the clouds in a plastic lawn chair, suspended by helium balloons and watching planes fly by below his feet.
But the moment of grace turned into pain when he was forced to somersault out of his seat, plunge hundreds of metres to the ground and make an emergency landing in prickly bushes he thinks broke his foot.
Boria, 26, was seen hovering over the Calgary Stampede Sunday in a $20 lawn chair attached to more than 100 helium balloons.
He planned to advertise his cleaning company, All Clean Natural, by using only air currents to float above the Stampede before skydiving into the chuckwagon races while his company logo flew by on an airplane banner above.
“It was eerie because it didn’t feel the same way you thought it would,” Boria said. “It wasn’t as bumpy as you’d expect, but when the balloons started blowing up the whole chair would shake like crazy. It was like a gun going off.”
The stunt didn’ t go as planned.
After being up in the air for 30 minutes, he failed to parachute into the races and crash landed “a mile or two” away from the Stampede.
“About halfway through my descent, I knew I was getting pushed backwards and there was no way I was going to make it,” he said. “I had to pick an emergency landing spot. I’m pretty sure I broke my foot. It’s no big deal.”
Calgary Police said they were waiting for him to land after several witnesses spotted him in the air.
Boria was charged with mischief causing danger to life and he was arrested at the scene of his crash-landing.
Police said he was treated for “minor injuries” and was then transported to the court services program. He is likely to be handed a fine.
The man said he researched the legality of his stunt, but didn’ t think he would be charged or arrested.
“We didn’t think they’d take it as seriously as they are,” Boria said. “Things are a little more severe than we anticipated.”
Boria and his employees dreamed up the idea. Although it has drawn comparisons to the film Up, Boria said the Pixar movie didn’t influence him because he’s never seen it.
His team bought a $20 lawn chair, six-foot balloons and $12,000-worth of helium to turn his airborne dream into a reality.
Boria also began skydiving to practise his descent into the Calgary Stampede.
He says he jumped 30 times in preparation, but that still wasn’t enough to prepare him for his ascent into the clouds. He flew so high he needed an oxygen tank to breathe. When he dove out of the chair, reserves were running low.
“The winds were so violent up there. It was aggressive,” he said of the frightening conditions. “I was a little bit in shock it was so cold up there.”
He wouldn’t reveal what altitude he was flying at “for legal reasons.”
Boria still sounded excited about his stunt, but admitted it would be difficult to repeat.
“If I were to do it again, (the police) wouldn’t be as easy on me. If I had the opportunity to do it again legally, I would do it again.”
Kyle Grant, the acting inspector for District 1, classified the stunt as dangerous and said it’s lucky the chair, or Boria, didn’t injure anyone on their way down from the air.
“Obviously it’s not a regulated device. It’s something that he concocted himself,” he said.
It’s not clear where the lawn chair ended up.
The longtime police officer said attaching large helium balloons to a chair and flying over the city is not a good idea.
“I’ve been on this job for 20 years and this is the first time I’ve seen something like this. Usually you see it on the TV shows of things not to do,” he said.
The whole chair would shake like crazy. It was like a gun going off