Mysterious ‘Sky Balloon’ puzzles Springville residence

SPRINGVILLE—Residents of Utah County were left confused and worried Wednesday afternoon when a mysterious weather balloon appeared in the sky.

According to the Springville Police Department, they received several calls about a giant weather balloon floating in the sky east of Springville. The Springville police Facebook page joked about the situation calling it “an alien spaceship sent from China to steal all the livestock.”

The flying object, however, turned out to be a steerable high-altitude Stratolite owned by World View Enterprise, Inc. The company’s Vice President, Phil Woken, explained that they were field-testing the stromatolite’s communications systems. “The system will start to traverse north over the coming days into Idaho,” he said.

The Stratolite may be compared to a weather balloon, but the device was said to measure solar radiation and can float higher than most commercial aircraft up to 64,000 feet.

Although residents can exhale a sigh of relief Springville Police Department still made light of the situation by posting a picture of the Stratolite with Mary Poppins attached to the bottom. The post said, “A naughty pair of children here in town (we won’t name names) who scared off their third nanny, and a new one blew in to teach them through music theory.”