1997 almost darwin-award winner

[Ultima]

Lmao, is this true? Pretty damn hilarious if it is.

1997
And now, Larry Walters of Los Angeles - one of the few Darwin winners to survive his award winning accomplishment.

Larry's boyhood dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. When he was finally discharged, he had to satisfy himself with watching jets fly over his backyard.

One day, Larry had a bright idea. He decided to fly. He went to the local Army-Navy surplus store and purchased 45weather balloons and several tanks of helium. The weather balloons, when fully inflated, would measure more than four feet across.

Back home, Larry securely strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn chair. He anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with the helium. He climbed on for a test while it was still only a few feet above the ground.

Satisfied it would work, Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of Miller Lite, loaded his pellet gun -- figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to descend -- and went back to the floating lawn chair. He tied himself in along with his pellet gun and provisions. Larry's plan was to lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard after severing the anchor and in a few hours come back down.

Things didn't quite work out that way.

When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair to his jeep, he didn't float lazily up to 30 or so feet. Instead he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon. He didn't level off at 30 feet, nor did he level off at 100 feet. After climbing and climbing, he levelled off at 11,000 feet. At that height 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, for more than 14 hours.

Then he really got in trouble.

He found himself drifting into the the primary approach corridor of Los Angeles International Airport.

A United pilot first spotted Larry. He radioed the tower and described passing a guy in a lawn chair with a gun. Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating 11,000 feet above the airport.

LAX emergency procedures swung into full alert and a helicopter was dispatched to investigate.

LAX is right on the ocean. Night was falling and the offshore breeze began to flow. It carried Larry out to sea with the helicopter in hot pursuit. Several miles out, the heli-copter caught up with Larry. Once the crew determined that Larry was not dangerous, they attempted to close in for a rescue but the draft from the blades would push Larry away whenever they neared.

Finally, the helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry snagged the line and was hauled back to shore. The difficult maneuver was flawlessly executed by the helicopter crew.

As soon as Larry was hauled to earth, he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD for violating LAX airspace. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked why he had done it. Larry stopped, turned and replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around."

 

[Anubis]

yes sadly this is true. i saw it on riplies a while back

 

[Wallydraigle]

That's hilarious!😀

 

[brtspears2]

Not a bad idea, perhaps next time, have a friend achor you down and watch that jet stream.

 

[Kadarin]

The guy's lucky to be alive, but you have to admit it's a GREAT story...

 

[StattlichPassat]

ROTFLOL!!! 😀😀😀 That is the best story. Ever.

 

[djheater]

Worse yet... My dad knows Larry very well... 😱

I assure you it's real.

 

[Squisher]

A guy in a lawn chair with a gun at 11,000 ft.


HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[Alphathree33]

Perhaps next time get a 30-foot length of rope.

EDIT: Or learn some physics and do the proper calculations to determine when Fup = Fdown 🙂

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
Perhaps next time get a 30-foot length of rope.

EDIT: Or learn some physics and do the proper calculations to determine when Fup = Fdown 🙂

Aye, a few calculations could have saved him a lot of trouble 🙂

 

[SSP]

Holy sheeet! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! What a dumb ass! 😀

 

[diskop]

Haha, great story. Wonder what his sentence was.

 

[N8Magic]

You can find the story on Snopes2, it's not an urban legend.

I'd link directly to the story, but the site locks up my crappy ancient browser here at work. Do a search for "balloon". 🙂

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

Originally posted by: diskop
Haha, great story. Wonder what his sentence was.

Perhaps not allowing him to own or use any weather balloons, lawn chairs or pellet guns for the rest of his life.

 

[DanFungus]

hahahha, i've heard this before, but, it still makes me laugh when i hear it 😀

 

[HiveMaster]

Worse yet... My dad knows Larry very well...

I assure you it's real.

Snopes says the story is true...but your dad is a liar if he says he "knows" Larry very well...

Not much else in life worked out for Larry, either -- he broke up with his girlfriend of fifteen years, his speaking career didn't pan out, and he worked only sporadically as a security guard. On 6 October 1993, Larry hiked to one of his favorite spots in Angeles National Forest and put a bullet through his heart. It was a sad end for the man who had made one the most celebrated flights since Lindbergh, a man who said, "It was something I had to do. I had this dream for twenty years, and if I hadn't done it, I think I would have ended up in the funny farm. I didn't think that by fulfilling my goal in life -- my dream -- that I would create such a stir and make people laugh."

The true story from snopes.