It was sheer horror inside a kid’s play bounce house for three children who became airborne when a gust of wind picked up the inflatable structure with the kids inside. The same horror was felt by their parents watching as their kids fell to the ground. A video that captured the bizarre event shows the "bouncy house" reaching an extraordinary 50-feet in height once the wind gust picked it up and carried it away, according to KFOR.com on May 13.
Two young boys were seriously injured in this incident and a little girl sustained minor injuries of scrapes and bruises. The children were thrown from the airborne bounce house with one boy landing on a parked car and the other boy landing on asphalt.
According to WNYT.com New York, the incident occurred in South Glen Falls, New York on Monday afternoon. The bounce house was secured to the ground with spikes, but the wind gust was too powerful to keep the 10-foot by 10-foot toy house in place, police report.
Parents who witnessed this horrific event report that the house flew over an area of woods and landed in a field that is behind the town’s middle school. The three kids, ages five, six and ten, fell out of the structure when it was about 15-feet above the ground.
This is not the first time a bounce house became airborne on a gust of wind with children inside. Back in 2011, not one, but three incidents of these inflatable houses taking flight on a wind gust were reported, according to ABC Storm Weather in an archived article from 2011.
In one incident a young boy was carried 110-feet into the air in a bounce house and thrown out of the inflatable toy on the roof of a house. Another incident was reported of two children inside an inflatable house flying over a roadway and then being dumped onto the pavement of the street below. Luckily there were no cars coming, but the both children were seriously injured.
The third case in Arizona that year had six kids inside an inflatable house when the wind took it. The house was whipped around in the wind injuring the kids, but none were seriously injured. It could be that the weight of the six kids helped in keeping that bounce house closer to the ground.
These inflatable bounce houses are popular for children’s birthday parties and at events for families and children. They can be rented for any occasion. The popularity of these inflatable toys has prompted some manufacturers to offer smaller bounce houses as an affordable purchase for a backyard amusement in the warm months.
The reports that the inflatable houses were secured to the ground with stakes in all of the airborne incidents suggest this is not a toy to use on windy days. The light and hollow bounce houses act like a balloon or an umbrella once the wind catches it just right.
Many are wondering why and how so many videos of these flying bouncy houses exist. Most of these incidents occurred after these inflatable toys were rented for a special event, like a backyard birthday party. It just so happened that someone was filming the kids having a great time at the party when the toy takes flight. Can you imagine the parents horror watching their children flying up to 100-feet off the ground in an airborne toy. There is nothing they can do to help their children at the time.