A Karoo farmer may have stumbled on a crashed test balloon being used by internet company Google, Beeld reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Urbanus Botha, who doesn\u2019t spend much time in front of computers, at first thought it might be a weather balloon from De Aar, but couldn\u2019t get through to the weather office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe enormous piece of plastic took up the whole of my sheep trailer,\u201d said Botha, who thought it might come in handy when painting.<\/p>\n
Later, he and his neighbour Stoffel Visagie sat and stared at it for a while, with the two sharing a love of repurposing old things.<\/p>\n
Botha\u2019s daughter Sarita, 20, examined the parts and the solar panel and sent some pictures to her older brothers Johan and Bennie, who spotted \u201cGoogle [X]\u201d on it.<\/p>\n
They googled it and realised the balloon and parts were part of a Google project to provide permanent internet connectivity to everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026An engineer in California said via email that the components in my photos look like those of their system. He will send a regional team to fetch the parts from us,\u201d said Sarita Botha.<\/p>\n
He farms between Strydenburg and Britstown.<\/p>\n
Google balloons take flight over South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Google Project Loon beams Internet from the sky using balloons<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n