Like a scaled back version of the Disney movie “Up,” a Canadian man attached his lawn chair to more than 100 large helium balloons and took off. But the stunt is costing him more than just the several thousand dollars worth of the gravity-defying gas he needed for liftoff. According to Calgary police, 26-year-old Daniel Boria was arrested and charged with one count of mischief causing danger to life after he parachute landed from his joy ride Sunday. In the process, the Toronto Star also reported that he injured his foot. He could face federal charges for potentially violating airspace regulations as well. “I did anticipate they would be a little upset,” he told the Star of law enforcement’s reaction. “It’s already worse than I thought it would be.” Watch the stunt (Content warning: strong language): A police spokesperson told the newspaper that “a stunt like this would require authorization from Transport Canada.” Inspector Kyle Grant told the Calgary Sun Boria’s actions were “irresponsible.”
“That chair has to come down and there’s the possibility it could land on a person, a vehicle, a house and cause damage … this is where that plan wasn’t thought out very well,” Grant said. The Star has more on exactly why Boria did it: The “dream” was concocted as a marketing stunt to draw attention to his company All Clean Natural. Boria was searching for a lofty idea to help his small start-up stand out against competitors with larger marketing budgets. Eight months ago, with very little previous experience, he travelled to the U.S. in search of a skydiving license and managed to accumulate “just enough” skills to make his plan a possibility. Finding someone else reckless enough to facilitate the idea was less simple. “We couldn’t find anyone who could get me to that altitude,” Boria said. “No pilots were willing to lose their license to fly me into controlled airspace. “We went as far (as) to consider bringing a Mexican into the country as a temporary worker to fly the plane.
That’s when we turned to helium.” Boria seems to think that the risk was worth the exposure for his company. “Sometimes you’ve got to live life on a limb if you truly believe in your company,” he told the Star. At one point, Boria reached an altitude where he said he could see airplanes below him. “I can’t specify the altitude I went to. I was looking down at a 747. It was a surreal experience,” he told the Calgary Sun. After he jumped from the makeshift craft, the newspaper reported that Justin Jamison and his friends found it in a ditch. “It was just a chair and some balloons and we thought someone fell out of the sky,” Jamison told the Sun. “We were wondering ‘should we be looking for someone?'” Because Boria’s cleaning company is supposed to be promoting natural products, he’s had to respond to criticism that the stunt wasn’t good for the environment as well. “We chose very strong latex to try and ensure when popped the balloons stayed attached to the strings which in turn where attached to the chair via complicated planned out carabiner system,” All Clean Natural said on Facebook.
“The chair in turn was tracked. But as you know you can’t completely predict the wind and the chair flew a bit further and landed sooner than expected. This is why it was not initially claimed by a member of All Clean Natural. We do care immensely about the environment and tried our hardest to protect it.”Daniel Boria was dreaming of an aerial stunt to promote his cleaning products company, All Clean Natural. When he couldn't find a pilot brave enough to drop him into the middle of an outdoor stadium in Calgary, Alberta, he opted for a do-it-yourself approach. Boria and his team constructed a makeshift flying machine by rigging 120 large helium balloons to the back of a lawn chair. After propelling himself above the clouds, he parachuted to safety...and was subsequently arrested. Videos of the flight went viral Tuesday, leading to a flood of media requests. According to Boria, the attention has caused All Clean Natural sales to skyrocket. Newsweek caught up with him this morning, as he was planning his next steps.
How did you come up with this idea?I wanted to do something really loud, and I've always had a bit of a passion for adrenaline. We had the idea of skydiving into the Calgary Stampede during the middle of the day. I actually had an airplane banner with our company logo and website address. We planned it as a promotion for our All Clean Natural products. Why did you choose that event?It's a huge public event. The Calgary Stampede is the greatest outdoor show on earth. It's like a huge rodeo. The whole idea was to land in the middle of the truck wagon races and then to get arrested. So how was it being arrested?Most of the cops were just really confused at first. Eventually, when they figured it out, almost everyone thought it was hilarious, except for those few. They were calling me Neil Armstrong when I got to the station. Did you film yourself up there?I had a GoPro the entire time, so I filmed the whole thing. I don't have it with me, though. It's in police custody, being used as evidence.
Besides promoting your cleaning products, was this a personal dream?Personally, I've always wanted to do something like that, skydiving or parachuting. We didn't think of the balloons at first. We were looking to hire an aircraft pilot, but we couldn't find anyone willing to take us up and let us jump out into the arena. So we decided that we would have to construct our own aircraft. We thought balloons would just be too funny, and then we figured it had to happen. What kind of balloons did you use?You know those giant helium balloons? You can usually see two or three of them outside car dealerships. We got 120 of those from a party store. Did they ask why you needed so many balloons?They did, of course. I told them we were hanging an advertisement in the sky. I didn't look into that. You ended up getting pretty high. Did you have any safety measurements in place?I had an extra safety harness that I used up until about 2,000 feet, which is where I activated my parachute. Never operate an aircraft without a seatbelt, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.
But were you concerned that 2,000 feet might be too high for the parachute to work?I was extremely confident. What about your family?You know, everyone I talked to told me it was the stupidest idea they'd ever heard. They kept saying that people were going to think I was ISIS and start shooting at me. But I believe that we need to eradicate the human behavior of fear, the human behavior of conformity. When I first started my company, I said, let's try to be different. What happened when you landed?I landed on a rocky hill somewhere, in prickle bushes, and scratched up my legs. I wasn't sure if I'd broken my foot or not. I was just laughing my head off. I limped down the hill to the highway and used this guy's truck to call our Mission Control room. You mean, to call your friends back at the house?No, the Mission Control room… How did the cops find out? Did the truck driver rat on you?I think he heard something on the radio about a bunch of balloons in the sky, and was like, "Oh…it's that fucking guy."