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Cornelius van der Walt, a lover of the sky, was as adventurous as he was responsible. Everything needed to be safe, and done in a particular way. He was the guy to trust, said John Vanca, his best friend and business partner.<\/p>\n
When Mr. van der Walt, 37, and three others died in a hot-air balloon crash in Arizona in January, the news shocked the skydiving community and made headlines<\/a> around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, the accident was back in the news, when the Pinal County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office released an autopsy report that said it had found high levels of ketamine, an anesthetic that in certain doses can have hallucinogenic effects, in Mr. van der Walt\u2019s body.<\/p>\n The balloon pilot did not have a prescription for the drug, the report stated. Though medical workers sometimes use it in an emergency to relieve pain<\/a>, the report said they had not used it that day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The headlines, from local newspapers to international outlets, honed on that detail: \u201cHot air balloon pilot had ketamine in his system at the time of a crash that killed 4, report says,\u201d The Associated Press said<\/a>.\u201d \u201cPilot in deadly hot air balloon crash had ketamine in system,\u201d said The Times of London<\/a>.<\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t the full story. Two days later, the medical examiner\u2019s office reversed itself, adding a crucial detail to its report: emergency responders had, in fact, given the ketamine to Mr. van der Walt.<\/p>\n New information had come to light, James Daniels, a spokesman for the medical examiner, said in an email this week.<\/p>\n For its initial report, the medical examiner\u2019s office had spoken to the fire department and a hospital involved in the rescue efforts, but it had not been aware that an Air Evac crew had treated him with ketamine.<\/p>\n Jeremy Sammons, a spokesman for the Eloy Police Department, said it was one of their investigators who noticed a \u201cpotential discrepancy\u201d in the medical examiner\u2019s report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n