This goes right along with what I was thinking yesterday. Just by eyeing the balloon from the newscasts it was hard to figure out its actual size, until it landed, at which point it became pretty obvious how large it was and how unlikely it was for it to lift any human.
Also based on how it flew and the fact that, given the authorities knowing the size of the balloon, there was no shifting of the bottom section when it rotated. I'd imagine staying on that piece of plywood in the same spot would be just as difficult as staying on a balance board, so they pretty quickly should have determined the balloon was not a worthwhile search topic.
Things just didn't add up and now we obviously know why.
I wouldn't suspend the search of a kid quoting howstuffworks and wikipedia, specially when stating that "about a gram" times "about a volume" is not greater than 23kg.
I was thinking this after I saw it on the ground, but it was probably difficult to estimate the size in the air.
The father should have known roughly how much it could lift, and I think I saw a statement that it could only life its battery pack. But he was probably willing to cast that evidence aside for the (erroneous) eyewitness testimony that it happened.
Also based on how it flew and the fact that, given the authorities knowing the size of the balloon, there was no shifting of the bottom section when it rotated. I'd imagine staying on that piece of plywood in the same spot would be just as difficult as staying on a balance board, so they pretty quickly should have determined the balloon was not a worthwhile search topic.
Things just didn't add up and now we obviously know why.