‘Balloonatic’ lands with $3,700 fine

Ottawa: A Canadian man was sanctioned for a stunt in which he flew high over Calgary in a lawn chair attached to 110 large helium balloons, local media said on Friday.

Daniel Boria, 27, whom prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz called a “balloonatic,” was ordered by a judge to pay a Can$5,000 (US$3,700) fine. Mr Boria also agreed to donate Can$20,000 (US$14,800) to charity after pleading guilty to dangerous operation of an aircraft, public broadcaster CBC said.

He also had to hand over video of the July 5, 2015, voyage to the court to prevent him from using it for self-promotion.

The Calgary Herald newspaper quoted Mr Dalidowicz as telling the Alberta provincial court that the flight, in which Mr Boria reached an altitude of more than 2km, could have caused a collision with any of two-dozen aircraft landing or departing from the city’s airport that evening.

It would have caused “catastrophic damage” to a passenger jet, he said.

The court clerk could not immediately confirm the sentence. The stunt was reminiscent of a flight in 1982 in California that has been imitated by others around the world and even spawned the extreme sport known as cluster ballooning.