re: Why is it ok to release helium balloons

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Balloonfest '86 was a 1986 event in which the United Way of Cleveland in Ohio set a world record by releasing almost one and a half million balloons. The event was intended to be a harmless fundraising publicity stunt

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The stunt was coordinated by Balloonart by Treb, a Los Angeles-based company headed by Treb Heining, which spent six months preparing for it. A rectangular structure the size of a city block, measuring 250 feet (76 m) by 150 feet (46 m) and rising three stories high, covered with a one-piece net of woven mesh material, was set up to hold the balloons, on the southwest quadrant of Public Square in Cleveland. Inside the structure, 2,500 students and other volunteers spent many hours filling the balloons with helium. United Way originally planned to release two million balloons, but eventually stopped at over 1.4 million. Children sold sponsorships to benefit United Way at the price of $1 for every two balloons.


On Saturday, September 27, 1986, with a rainstorm approaching, organizers decided on an early release of the balloons at about 1:50 p.m. EST. Close to 1.5 million balloons rose up from Cleveland's Public Square, surrounding Terminal Tower and surpassing a world record set the previous year on the 30th anniversary of Disneyland.

The balloons collided with a front of cool air and rain and dropped towards the ground, clogging the land and waterways of Northeast Ohio. In the days following the event, balloons were reported washed ashore on the Canadian side of Lake Erie.

Two fishermen, Raymond Broderick and Bernard Sulzer, who had gone out on September 26, were reported missing by their families on the day of the event. Rescuers spotted their 16-foot (4.9 m) boat anchored west of the Edgewater Park breakwall. A Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter crew had difficulties reaching the area because of the "asteroid field" of balloons. On September 29, the Coast Guard suspended its search. The fishermen's bodies subsequently washed ashore. The wife of one of the fishermen sued the United Way of Cleveland and the company that organized the balloon release for $3.2 million and later settled on undisclosed terms.

Balloons landing on a pasture in Medina County, Ohio, spooked Louise Nowakowsk's Arabian horses, which suffered permanent injuries as a result. Nowakowsk sued the United Way of Cleveland for $100,000 in damages and settled for undisclosed terms.

Burke Lakefront Airport had to shut down a runway for half an hour after balloons landed there. Traffic accidents were also reported "as drivers swerved to avoid slow motion blizzards of multicolored orbs or took their eyes off the road to gawk at the overhead spectacle".

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