 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Index
OverallWinnersNominationsNominees
99Nominees98Nominees97Nominees96Nominees95NomineesWinners
95Winners96Winners97Winners98Winners82Winners|
|
| 1982 Darwin Awards Winner |
| ||||||
| A North Hollywood truck driver with 45 weather balloons rigged to a single lawn chair took a 45 minute ride up to 16,000 feet above southern California. "I know it sounds strange, but it's true," Long Beach police Lt. Rod Mickelson said after he stopped laughing. Larry Walters, 33, of North Hollywood, was uninjured. The Federal Aviation Administration was not amused. Regional safety inspector Neal Savoy said the flying lawn chair was spotted by TWA and Delta jetliner pilots at 16,0000 feet above sea level. "We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act," Savoy said. "If he had a pilot's license, we'd suspend that. But he doesn't." Police said Walters went to his girlfriend's house in San Pedro Thursday night, inflated 45 six-foot-tall weather balloons with helium and attached them to an aluminum lawn chair tethered to the ground. Friday morning, with half a dozen friends holding the tethers, Walters donned a parachute, strapped himself into the chair and had his friends let him up slowly. Minutes later he was calling for help on the CB radio he had with him. He passed a few private planes on the way up and was spotted by baffled jetliner pilots. The dizzy balloonist managed to shoot out about 10 of the weather balloons before his gun fell overboard 90 minutes into the flight. "This guy broke into our channel with a mayday," said Doug dixon of an Orange County citizen's band radio club. "He said he had shot up like an elevator to 16,000 feet and was getting numb...He sounded worried but he wasn't panicked." However, after puncturing several of the balloons, Walters' BB pistol fell overboard and the chair drifted downward. The ropes entangled in a power line, briefly blackin out a small area of Long Beach. The chair dangled five feet above ground and Walters was able to get down safely. In 1982, Walters floated three miles above Southern California in a lawn chair rigged with 42 helium-filled weather balloons. Walters, then a 33-year-old North Hollywood truck driver, had no aviation experience but had always wanted to fly. Armed with a two-way radio, a parachute, a pellet gun and some jugs of water for ballast, he expected to rise gracefully into the sky from his girlfriend's back yard in San Pedro, Calif., then shoot the balloons down to make a gentle landing. Then, as he turned his back, there were plently of flashing red and blue lights waiting for him. The long arm of the law grabbed him. Walters had to pay $1,500 in a settlement with the Federal Aviation Administrati on, which accused him of flying in a reckless manner, operating too close to the airport and failing to maintain contact with the control tower. He parlayed the stunt into a brief moment of fame, including late-night talk-show appearances and a Timex watch commercial. But fortune eluded him, and within months he had declared bankruptcy. Thus began a long string of disappointments. By 1993 he was working only sporadically as a security guard and did volunteer work for the U.S. Forest Service. And in October of that year he hiked into a remote canyon of the Angeles National Forest and shot himself in the heart. |
| Individual Darwin! |
 Another Great Product of Darwin Productions |
|
. |
| Visitors: 01347 |