The guy's name was Larry Walters. It was 42 weather balloons strapped to an aluminum lawn chair that took him up to the 16,000 foot height as mentioned. He had a plan though...

He took a 6 pack of beer up with him and a BB gun. When the beer was done, he used the BB gun to shoot out some of the balloons. He ended up crashing down on a power line. Yes, he was spotted by both TWA and Delta airline pilots while up there.

Timex had a series of ads a while back that featured people who had survived freaky things and were modelling different models of their watches. Larry was sporting a $50 "Moon Dial" watch. I still have an old 1991 Life magazine (that I kept for the article of the cleaning-up of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling) with his big dumb face with its shit-eating grin plastered on it. I'm looking at it now. There were 4 ads all together on consecutive pages:

Other "survivors" from the ad series who got a watch from Timex:

Willie Duberry: age 121, credits quitting smokin' an' drinkin' with adding a few years, though his sister made it to 115 (doesn't say whether she was a chain-smoking pisstank though)

Louisa Murray: hit in the head by a bowling ball that fell 3 stories while she was eating a sandwich

DeAndra Anrig: young girl who was flying a kite near an airport when an approaching plane snagged the cord, lifting her 10 feat in the air for 200 feet before she dropped to the ground (she is wearing a cast on her wrist in the photo). The cord broke one of the plane's propellors.

Don't try this at home, folks!