We hope they were the ones who jumped – parents

THE SA-BORN parents of a young man who died in a hot air balloon accident in New Zealand are struggling to block from their minds the horrific way in which he died.

Chrisjan Jordaan, 21, and his girlfriend, Alexis Still, 19, were on board the balloon, which caught fire and plummeted to the ground in Carterton, near Wellington, on Saturday.

A man and a woman reportedly jumped or fell out of the basket before it was engulfed in flames and Chrisjan’s father, Jan, hopes that they were his son and Alexis.

“I (am) just hoping that they were the ones who jumped out because the thought of my son burning alive is… very bad. On the internet it said he and Alexis jumped out, but the police said they can’t confirm it. I hope he didn’t burn to death, it would have been a very, very horrible death. I try to block it out, but it still comes, the thought of it. To hear what happened was unreal, it’s still unreal.’’

Jan and his wife, Annie, were travelling to Wellington from their home in Southland, where he is a dairy farmer and she a teacher, to make funeral arrangements and to visit the site of New Zealand’s worst aviation tragedy since the 1979 Mt Erebus disaster.

The family emigrated from SA in 2004 and Chrisjan attended Northern Southland College and then Southland Boys’ High before moving to Wellington to study architecture. After his first year at university, he took a break to study the Bible and to volunteer for the Arise Church in Wellington, and in 2010 went on an aid mission to Africa, where he got to know Alexis.

The trip inspired him to become a missionary, and he and Alexis intended to eventually travel to Third World countries to do humanitarian work.

“When he was back in Wellington he started a nursing course because he believes a missionary can’t be a good missionary just with a Bible, you also have to help people. “He loves people and he loves to serve people, to help people.”

Jan struggled to contain his emotions as he described what his son was like.

“He was a very nice boy, very self-sufficient and was a great son.’’

Arise Church young adults pastor Ben Carroll said Chrisjan was caring, kind and selfless.

“You couldn’t really get anybody more compassionate, to be honest. He was always about other people, literally everything he did was all about other people – it didn’t matter who you are or who you were, he was just really interested and he cared.’’ – APNZ