Man soars over Calgary after tying 110 balloons filled with helium to his lawn chair for PR stunt, gets arrested for mischief
Daniel Boria, 26, could face further charges under the Federal Aeronautics Act
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Your support makes all the difference.A man has been arrested for mischief causing danger to life after he was forced to parachute out of a lawn chair that was being carried through the air by 110 helium-filled balloons.
Daniel Boria, 26, soared into the skies as part of a dangerous PR stunt designed to publicise his cleaning company in Canada on Sunday.
He had intended to parachute out of the chair and land at the Calgary Stampede, an annual rodeo and festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of people each year.
But he told CBC News he couldn’t control his direction due to the weather and was instead forced to parachute into an industrial field a few kilometres away from the event, spraining his ankle.
Boria was tracked by Calgary police over the course of his flight and was arrested on Sunday, before being charged with mischief and detained until Monday morning.
“Everybody sort of laughs and thinks about some guy in a lawn chair floating over the city, but when you sit back and think about it, it’s just very irresponsible,” Inspector Kyle Grant told The Chronicle Herald.
“He’s flying over a city of 1.2 million, heading towards Stampede grounds, hundreds of thousands of people, the last thing we want to see is anybody injured, whether its himself the pilot or a member of public,” Inspector Grant added.
The stunt reportedly cost Boria around $20,000 when the cost of a plane hired to fly around the Stampede with a banner advertising his cleaning company is taken into account.
Boria could reportedly face further charges under the Federal Aeronautics act.
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