Balloonfest '86 - Releasing 1,500,000 Balloons Went Horribly Wrong
The United States set a world record in the City of Cleveland in September 1986, as almost one-and-a-half million balloons were released together in the sky. The scene was amazing and spectacular but the results were equally bad as the city had to suffer a lot of damage, even two Cleveland residents had to lost their lives. So let's know the whole story behind this 1986 Balloon event. The city of Cleveland was always called a boring city because there was not much done for entertainment in the city. So to get rid of this Boredom, a nonprofit organization called "United Way" thought up a suggestion for intending a balloon festival for some entertainment purpose, as well as collecting donations. Under this plan, 2000000 balloons were to be released in the sky of Cleveland. So thousands of people gathered there in Public Square to enjoy this wonderful event. The NGO volunteers started preparing in full enthusiasm, 2,500 volunteers started filling the balloons with helium on the morning of 27 September and spent several hours for completing the task.
But it was very difficult to hold so many balloons together, therefore, a rectangular structure was arranged on the southwest quadrant of Public Square, which was covered with a one-piece net of woven mesh material, measuring 250 feet long and 150 feet wide, and rising three stories high. After that, one by one, the balloons began to accumulate inside the net, and the volunteers' fingers swollen as they filled so many balloons, but they did not stop. According to the weather report, winds had to be very fast that day, hence the number of balloons was reduced from 2000000 to 1500000. Now the time has come when the 1,500,000 balloons were accumulated in the net and were ready to be set free towards the open sky. It was a very spectacular scene to watch, people started clapping and swinging happily. Now a new world record was set, before this, a world record of 1 million balloons released was set in 1985 on the completion of 30 years of Disneyland.
But the destruction was ready to happen shortly after this amazing event. As we know, Helium gas was used to fill these balloons, although helium gas is much lighter than air and hence helium balloons fly upwards but if the helium is exposed to cold air then its weight increases. This happens because the cold air decreases the volume inside the balloon and makes the shell of the balloon shrink and sink to the ground. Something similar happened that day, as was told in the weather report, the cold air started to run and it also rained. As a result, the balloons started coming down at the same speed as they were going upward. Balloons spread over a large area including roads and rivers and caused great disturbance throughout the city. Due to large numbers of balloons on the roads, the vehicles had to face terrible traffic that day. There were so many balloons drifting on the runway of Cleveland's local airport that the runway had to be temporarily shut down for a short period of time. In a pasture in Medina County, a woman named Louise Nowakowski who had many expensive Arabian horses, seeing a cluster of balloons coming towards them, the horses went mad and started jumping, due to which they suffered a lot of injuries. Louise sued the United Way for $100,000 in damages and settled for undisclosed terms.
But all of this was nothing because the biggest accident happened in Cleveland's Lake Erie. Two fishermen named Raymond Broderick and Bernard Sulzer went for fishing in the lake that day and did not return for long. As soon as the coastal defense, search and rescue team got this news, they went out to search for the fishermen in the lake, but they got a very strange view, as there were only balloons on each side of the lake. It was very difficult to find fishermen among the "asteroid field" of balloons. The rescue team tried to spot the fishermen floating in the lake, but the balloons in the water made it impossible to see whether anyone was in the lake and therefore the rescue team had to return empty-handed. The fishermen were later found to have drowned and their wives sued United Way. One settled for $3.2 million and another settled on undisclosed terms. This event was intended to be a fundraising publicity stunt but cost overruns put the event at a net loss, causing the United Way into deep trouble. But the United Way had taken care of one thing, these balloons were made biodegradable, this means that these balloons will not harm the nature, otherwise, we do not know how many animals also become victims of this incident.
Image Credit - Flickr
Image Credit - Flickr
Image Credit - Flickr