Children Recovering After Bouncy House Takes Flight

Several children are recovering tonight after a freak incident in Muskogee sent a bounce house flying into the air, with children inside.

Touch-A-Truck is an annual event for the Muskogee Public Library. They partner with people in the community and say the day is all about kids which is what made what happened next so devastating for everyone involved.

Bouncy House Takes Flight At Muskogee Library Event 

"It was just kind of a light sprinkle, the weather wasn't too bad and then the wind picked up real suddenly," said witness Billy Arnett.

Billy Arnett was getting ready to hit the stage at the Muskogee Touch-A-Truck event when the first gust of wind hit. He says a canopy close to the stage started to lift, so several people grabbed ropes to pull it back down. 

"Then that is when we heard the noise behind us and it was the bounce house. It was breaking loose and then flipped and went into the air and then it went, I don't know how far across the field," said Arnett, “for whatever reason it didn't quite register to me that there might be someone in it and that kind of really quickly became apparent."

Billy says by the time he realized what he was seeing, first responders already at the event were racing to help the kids inside the bounce house.

"It was unbelievable. No joke, they were like superheroes," said Arnett.

Jessica Conley, the branch director with the Muskogee Public Library was watching as well.

"My heart just sank. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen and just immediately rushed towards it as did so many other people," said Conley.

Conley says the company who set up the bounce house, donates it every year. She says it was staked into the ground like it is supposed to be but the wind came on too quickly for the event staff to shut down the bounce house.

"We love the kids that we serve. It changed the whole mood of the staff after that," said Conley.

Witnessing the incident, changed the mood for Billy and several other artists who decided not to perform after all. Instead, they say they went home and hugged their babies, a little tighter.

Conley says the library takes the safety of the kids at their events very seriously and is hoping to learn from what happened here.