A Man Tied 42 Helium Balloons To A Lawn Chair And Took Flight – But Disaster Struck At 16,000 Feet

For 20 years, Larry Walters has fantasized about taking flight through the skies over California. And now, everything is finally in place. Tying 42 weather balloons to his favorite lawn chair, he lifts off from the ground with ease. But this unintentional daredevil’s plan is actually far too effective, and soon he finds himself in peril thousands of feet above the Earth.

Armed with just a few essentials, Walters took off from his fiancé’s yard in Los Angeles, CA, in the hope of spending a few hours taking in the sights of the nearby Mojave Desert. But immediately after the launch, he realized that he’d be getting much more than he bargained for. And before long, his relatively modest plan had turned into a death-defying stunt.

For more than an hour and a half, Walters soared high above the city, wreaking havoc across the skies. And almost 30 years later, his story continues to inspire adrenalin junkies around the world. While cluster ballooning is now considered an extreme sport, few have taken it to the same lengths that this humble truck driver achieved back in the summer of 1982.

In a plot alarmingly similar to the Pixar hit Up, Walters used nothing more than helium balloons to power his record-breaking flight. But even though his unlikely adventure has influenced a number of movies and shows, the truth remains stranger than any fiction. This is the story of a man who dared to dream – and left a trail of disaster in his wake.

But what prompted Walters, who was in his early 30s at the time, to attempt a stunt so daring that it’s remembered with awe even today? Well, the seeds of this flight of fancy were apparently sown shortly after he reached his teens. It was the beginning of the 1960s, and the world was on the cusp of the laid-back hippie revolution that would come to characterize the rest of the decade. In Los Angeles, though, a young boy was dreaming of a different kind of freedom.