|
The Lawn Chair Man (True Story)
Larry Walters went to the local Army and Navy surplus store and purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium gas. He securely strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn chair and anchored his chair to the bumper of his Jeep and inflated the balloons with helium. Larry packed several sandwiches and a six pack of Miller Light and loaded his pellet gun figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to decend. Larry's plan was to float up to 30 feet above his back yard and come back down in a few hours.
Things didn't quite work out for Larry. When he cut the chord anchoring the lawn chair to his Jeep he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon. He didn't level off at 30 feet but 16,000 feet. At that hight he felt he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons. So he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened for more than 14 hours until he found himself in the primary approach corridor of LAX. A Pan Am pilot was the first to spot Larry. He radiod the tower and reported passing a guy in a lawn chair ..... with a gun!
Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating at 16,000 feet above the airport. LAX emergency procedures swung into full alert and a helicopter was dispatched to investigate.The offshore breeze began to blow and carried Larry out to sea. Right on Larry's heels was the rescue helicopter. The helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry snagged the line, with which he was hauled back to shore. As soon as Larry was back to earth he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD for violating LAX airspace.
|