On Wednesday, April 6, 1988, a hot air balloon made an emergency landing in Blue Mountains National Park. Blown off course by a thermal near Warragamba Dam, the balloon headed west, finally
landing near Lake Burragorang as it ran out of gas. The six people aboard emerged safely from their eventful journey.
An intense air search had been mounted for them after the floating craft lost radio contact with the ground crew. First to join police in the search was the National Parks and Wildlife Service helicopter based at Camden. The balloon was found just after 1 pm, in the bush southeast of McMahons Lookout,
Retrieval of the balloon from the rugged escarpment of Lake Burragorang. was not so easy. The rain, tail forest and 2200 pound weight of the balloon made the recovery operation very difficult. There was nowhere to land the helicopter, so the National Parks and Wildlife Service helicopter winched three personnel 23 metres down into the tall forest. The balloon and basket were then lifted out by the helicopter separately and taken across to a Water Board barge on Lake Burragorang.
There are 42 aircraft incidents in “Mountains Mishaps”. This one involved the largest number of passengers and makes incident number 43.