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Iraqi Daredevil Visits Bend as Balloon Voyage Nears

BEND, Ore. - His name may not be recognizable, but Fareed Lafta's journey soon will be. If all goes as planned, he'll be taking part in a unique balloon flight over Baghdad, Iraq with Bend lawn chair balloonist Kent Couch.

The flight, originally planned for last fall, was delayed because of the growing excitement for it. So Lafta is traveling the U.S., spreading a message of hope.

Lafta is known to go to the extreme, and has skydived over 5,000 times, over places like the North Pole, Afghanistan and Iraq, and was one of the first to skydive over Mount Everest.

But he told the students at Bend's Morning Star Christian School Thursday that taking flight over Iraq, held aloft only with balloons, will be unlike anything he's ever done before.

Though he hopes that he and Couch will break some records along the way, it's much more than that.

Growing up in Iraq provided limited resources for Lafta, but that didn't stop him.

"When I was a child, I was a dreamer," said Lafta. "So I thought to myself, when I was two years old, I was a bird. This is unusual in Iraq, so my family and society thought I had some problems."

What other people deemed "crazy," he took as the norm. He said if he couldn't be a bird in real life, he'd still figure out a way to fly, and fulfilled his dream through skydiving.

His imagination took him to even greater heights, becoming an extreme athlete -- and the first Iraqi certified cosmonaut.

This spring, he plans to embark on his biggest flight yet.

On a lawn chair suspended beneath over 150 balloons, the pair plan to float from Baghdad to Basra, hoping to send a positive message of hope for children, mostly orphans around the world.

"You have great opportunity to be great people," Lafta told the Bend youngsters. "So take advantage of the situation. You have democracy, you have beautiful schools, you have a lot of information, technology."

Of course, people have raised concerns about Lafta and Couch's safety. The stunt will be performed over a war zone, but Lafta says they've made all the right calculations and have contacted authorities to ensure their safety as best as possible.

"To be careful, that's okay," he said. "We are crazy, but not suicidal,"

The plan is to begin the flight in a stadium filled with 20,000 orphans in Baghdad and end in Basra, with Lafta skydiving off first and Couch landing the balloon chair.

Both Lafta and Couch hope this mission gives the kids a reason to smile.

"When they see this colorful and fancy flight, they (the orphants) will smile," Lafta said. "This will give them hope, to bring their eyes to the sky. That means unlimited ambition.

"Because when you look to the sky, that means all the horizons are open to you."