Falcon's flight of fancy full of hot air

FORT COLLINS, US: They feared he was inside a homemade helium balloon that broke loose and flew thousands of feet above Fort Collins in Colorado.

So high was the media frenzy the massive search-and-rescue operation set off that US cable news networks interrupted coverage of a town-hall meeting by President Barack Obama to broadcast live footage of the small Mylar airship for two hours as it soared about 80 km east across Colorado.

But the more-than-two-hour frenzy fortunately ended in anti-climax when 6-year-old Falcon Heene was found hiding in a box in the attic above his family's garage.