5 year old girl swept away by helium balloon

[FrustratedPoet]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2974342.stm

A British five-year-old girl has been killed after being swept away by a helium balloon in Germany.
Her body was found two hours later near the balloon, 40 miles (70km) away.

The freak accident happened when the girl became entangled in the mooring ropes of the balloon as it was taken by high winds.

It was about to be used for fun rides at a British military show at Rheindalen, near Moenchengladbach in western Germany.

British military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Helen Wildman said the plan was to lift people up and down with the balloon tethered to a rope on a hot, sunny day.

She told BBC Radio 5 Live: "The weather was very nice but suddenly it changed and it became extremely stormy.

"The balloon broke away from the rope and flew away.

"Unfortunately, the rope got tangled with a five-year-old girl and dragged her away with the balloon.

"She was lifted in the air."

A search was immediately launched by German authorities and British military police.

"They began by searching the immediate local area around the showground and were extending it further when they received a call from the police in Hamminkeln, near Wesel, to say that they had discovered the balloon and the body of a young girl."

An investigation into the accident is under way.

Poor kid.

[FrustratedPoet]

However, it could have been worse. She could have had her brain eaten by a baboon.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
However, it could have been worse. She could have had her brain eaten by a baboon.

Probably a quicker way to die than a 40 mile flight with no parachute. Just as devastating for the family though.

[Sirotnikov]

OMG

[MRT144]

this and the baboon story have made me really wonder about this world

[Ecthy]

yeah, she flew 50 km

so she was a brit girl?

[GePap]

Ecthelion (nice troll though..bound to get a big response)

this and the baboon story have made me really wonder about this world

That is it random and that your life keep going only becuase of a huge set of possible ways it could end simply have not come to pass?

Well, yeah, that is the world.

[Boris Godunov]

What is this, "Horrible Things Happen To Children" day?

[Jack the Bodiless]

I wonder how she died? Unlikely that she fell, if she was found near where the balloon landed.

Asphyxiation or hypothermia? Would it go that high?

[mrmitchell]

Maybe after she crashed her brain was eaten by a baboon. Did they notice any marks on her, or the lack of a head?

[mrmitchell]

Maybe after she crashed her brain was eaten by a baboon. Did they notice any marks on her, or the lack of a head?

[Immortal Wombat]

That there must be a God, because dumb fate hasn't got the imagination for that sh!t.

[MRT144]

mrmitchell

[Ecthy]

mrmitchell, I just had something similar in mind

but don't you feel ashamed?

[FrustratedPoet]

I wonder how she died? Unlikely that she fell, if she was found near where the balloon landed.

Asphyxiation or hypothermia? Would it go that high?

Perhaps the rope got tangled around her neck or something. If that's the case she could have died very soon after she left the ground. Which I suppose is better than being carried for forty miles, but not by much.