Heroic rescue effort

Aussie focused on helping others in hot air balloon tragedy

AN Australian tourist caught up in the horrific hot air balloon crash in Egypt tried frantically to save a dying fellow passenger.

Vanessa Condran, 31, from Lake Illawarawa, south of Sydney, was on the trip of a lifetime with a tour party when she took off in the balloon flight over Luxor.

The tragedy claimed the life of a South African tourist and left 12 passengers injured. Seven Australian tourists survived the crash.

Four people have been detained over the crash – the balloon’s pilot, the director of the airport from which it took off in western Luxor and two officials from the balloon-owning company.

Zoe Drinkwater, 22, from Newcastle was one of those aboard, according to the Seven Network, who spoke to her mother on Saturday.

“As they were coming in to land there was a big gust of wind that came up which then consequently knocked out the pilot,” Lainie Drinkwater said.

“The pilot was unconscious ... so no-one was actually steering and operating this balloon so it was just plunging.”

The balloon took off at sunrise and flew for 45 minutes at an altitude of 450m before the pilot lost control over a mountainous area, Egyptian officials have said, adding the pilot was injured.

Ms Drinkwater was also with Vanessa Condran, 31, Montanna Leveque, 20, and River Kano, 21, from Melbourne and Emma Forster, 24, from Alice Springs.

Vanessa Condran’s grandmother said that the young woman ignored her own injuries in the crash on Friday to help others.

“She said she was OK, but had some [pain] with her neck and something with her finger from where she was hanging onto the rope,” Marie Condran said.

“She was hanging onto some other girl who was hysterical – there were people hurt everywhere.”