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[Guest guest]

This is a long one but well worth the read....it's a hoot...Doug

And now, the 1997 winner: Larry Waters of Los Angeles -- one of the few

Darwin winners to survive his

award-winning accomplishment. Larry's boyhood dream was to fly. When he

graduated from high school, he

joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor

eyesight disqualified him. When he was

finally discharged, he had to satisfy himself with watching jets fly over

his backyard.

One day, Larry, had a bright idea. He decided to fly. He went to the local

Army-Navy surplus store and

purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium. The weather

balloons, when fully inflated, would

measure more than four feet across.

Back home, Larry securely strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn chair. He

anchored the chair to the bumper

of his jeep and inflated the balloons with the helium. He climbed on for a

test while it was still only a few feet

above the ground.

Satisfied it would work, Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of

Lite, loaded his pellet gun--

figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to descend-- and went

back to the floating lawn chair.

He tied himself in along with his pellet gun and provisions. Larry's plan

was to lazily float up to a height of about

30 feet above his back yard after severing the anchor and in a few hours

come back down.

Things didn't quite work out that way.

When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair to his jeep, he didn't float

lazily up to 30 or so feet. Instead he

streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon. He didn't level off at 30

feet, nor did he level off at 100 feet.

After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 11,000 feet. At that height

he couldn't risk shooting any of the

balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So

he stayed there, drifting, cold and

frightened, for more than 14 hours.

Then he really got in trouble. He found himself drifting into the primary

approach corridor of Los Angeles

International Airport. A United pilot first spotted Larry. He radioed the

tower and described passing a guy in a

lawn chair with a gun. Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating

11,000 feet above the airport. LAX

emergency procedures swung into full alert and a helicopter was dispatched

to investigate. LAX is right on the

ocean. Night was falling and the offshore breeze began to flow. It carried

Larry out to sea with the helicopter in

hot pursuit. Several miles out, the helicopter caught up with Larry. Once

the crew determined that Larry was not

dangerous, they attempted to close in for a rescue but the draft from the

blades would push Larry away

whenever they neared.

Finally, the helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above

Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry

snagged the line and was hauled back to shore. The difficult maneuver was

flawlessly executed by the helicopter

crew. As soon as Larry was hauled to earth, he was arrested by waiting

members of the LAPD for violating

LAX airspace. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to

cover the daring rescue asked why he

had done it. Larry stopped, turned and replied nonchalantly, " A man can't

just sit around. "

Let's hear it for Larry Waters, the 1997 Darwin Award Winner.