What started as a harmless fundraising publicity stunt ultimately ended in a catastrophe.
In 1986, an attempt at breaking a world record with balloons occurred in Cleveland, Ohio. The event, which was meant to be a harmless fundraising publicity stunt, however, didn’t go as planned and unintentionally left unforeseen consequences in its wake.
The event, which became known as Balloonfest ’86 was an attempt by a nonprofit organization, United Way of Cleveland in Ohio to put Cleveland on the map. They decided to achieve this by way of breaking the world record for the simultaneous release of balloons that had been set the year previously by Disney in Anaheim, California, on the 30th anniversary of Disneyland.
On September 27, 1986, the day of the stunt arrived, though the organizers ultimately released the balloons earlier than previously planned due to a rainstorm that was fast approaching that day. At 1:50 p.m., nearly 1.5 million balloons were let go, and rose up from Cleveland’s Public Square, surrounding Terminal Tower.
With the balloons free, the thinking was that they would all stay in the air until fully deflating and returning to earth. Regrettably, that’s not what ended up happening, however. After being let go, the floating spheres of colorful helium-filled latex collided with a front of cool air and…
