Man who piloted helium balloon chair doesn’t regret publicity stunt
Posted Jul 6, 2015 3:57 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The man claiming to have piloted the helium balloon chair stunt over Calgary skies this weekend says it was the most exhilarating thing he’s ever done, but admits he’s worried about what future charges he could face.
A man was spotted floating over the Stampede grounds in the chair Sunday and when helium balloons started popping, he ejected via a parachute and landed in a green space just off of Ogden Road S.E.
Daniel Boria has been fined and faces a single charge of mischief causing danger to life, but that may not be the end.
City police are looking other legislation outside their expertise to see if the accused could be facing stiffer penalties and Boria tells 660News, it’s come as a surprise.
“We didn’t think it would be pursued this aggressively and we didn’t think the outcome would be this negative, but at the same time it was the most exhilarating experience I could ever imagine, so no we definitely don’t regret it,” he said.
He did say he’s worried about other potential charges following the publicity stunt for his cleaning services company.
“It is a little bit of a worry, I’m not going to lie,” the 26-year-old admitted. “It is the first thing I’ve ever done wrong, but the police were extremely nice to me.”
“Maybe we did make a few bad judgement calls, but all in all, everyone was really accommodating and I think most people understood why we did it and they thought it was just fantastic, all the feedback we’re getting is fantastic.”
CPS isn’t seeing it that way as Insp. Kyle Grant described the incident on Monday.
“Everybody sort of laughs and thinks about some guy in a lawn chair floating over the city, but when you sit back and you think about it, it’s just very irresponsible,” Grant said.
“He’s flying over a city of 1.2 million, heading towards the Stampede grounds, hundreds of thousands of people, the last thing we want to see is anybody injured, whether it’s himself the pilot or a member of the public.”
Boria said he and his team planned so that the only person’s safety at risk would be his own.
“That’s something you never want to live with, we don’t believe it was a dangerous stunt, we’re the ones who put it together, it was a five-pound lawn chair, the balloons popped one by one and it would come down very slow,” he said.
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