A Colorado court has jailed a couple for staging a hoax that their six-year-old son, Falcon, was aboard a runaway homemade balloon.
Richard Heene was sentenced to 30 days of "straight time" in jail plus 60 additional days on a work-release programme.
Judge Stephen Schapanski also ordered Heene to undergo four years of supervised probation over the incident last October and do 100 hours of community service for each of those years.
The judge said he believed that Heene was "contrite" and regretted the October incident.
An emotional Heene apologised for his actions before being sentenced. "I'm very, very sorry and I want to apologize to...all the rescue workers out there and people that got involved in the community," he said.
Heene was also barred from receiving any financial gain as a result of the hoax. He will begin his sentence in January following the Christmas holidays.
His wife Mayumi was sentenced to serve 20 days in jail and given four years of probation and 120 hours of community service. Her jail time will not begin until her husband's has ended.
Heene pleaded guilty last month to attempting to influence a public servant, which is a felony. Mayumi Heene, a Japanese citizen who could have been deported if convicted of more serious charges, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of false reporting, a misdemeanour.
The Heenes were also ordered to pay restitution for the search and rescue costs, which Larimer County District Attorney's Office estimates at $46,000.
On October 15th, the Heenes reported that their son Falcon had drifted away on a homemade balloon that broke loose from its tethers at their house in Fort Collins.
The alarm prompted a huge search involving police, fire crews and the National Guarda as the UFO-shaped balloon flew 80 kilomteres across northern Colorado before crashing into a field 25 kilometres from Denver International Airport.
When the boy was not found aboard, authorities feared he had fallen out. Falcon was later found in his home and claimed he had been hiding because he was afraid he was in trouble. However, he admitted later during an interview on CNN that "We did this for a show".
The Heenes confessed to perpetrating the hoax to drum up attention for a possible reality television show.
The search and rescue costs figure includes $8,000 in sheriff's department overtime. Another $13,500 was spent by law enforcement agencies from the nearby communities of Greeley and Weld County, along with Colorado State University and the US Forest Service. Two National Guard helicopters launched to track the balloon cost about $16,000. Also included are $8,500 in damages to the field where the craft landed.
The Federal Aviation Authority has also informed the Heenes that they may be subject to an $11,000 fine for launching an unauthorised aircraft. The balloon flight forced some commercial aircraft to switch to a different runway at Denver International Airport.