{"id":573575,"date":"2026-07-07T16:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/573575\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T16:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:23:21","slug":"florida-airboat-captain-helps-stranded-helicopter-crew-from-alligator-filled-lake-jesup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/573575\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida airboat captain helps stranded helicopter crew from alligator-filled Lake Jesup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Downed \"Downed Downed helicopter, crew rescued from alligator-infested Lake Jessup<\/a> <\/p>\n

Central Florida Airboat captain Derrick Lockhart recalled a unique call which led to rescuing a crashed helicopter and its crew from a floating swamp in Lake Jessup. The rescue took place right before storm rolled in as rescuers used wood pilings to manually maneuver the helicopter onto an airboat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ORLANDO, Fla.<\/strong> – When a helicopter crash-landed on an island in the middle of Lake Jesup \u2013 known for being home to thousands of big and small alligators \u2013 a nearby airboat captain was one of the first to respond.<\/p>\n

Captain Derrick Lockhart, a manager at Midway Airboat Rides, described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.” No was was hurt in the crash or the rescue.<\/p>\n

Helicopter makes emergency landing in alligator-filled lake <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

The crash happened last week after a helicopter had to make an emergency landing on an island in the middle of Lake Jesup, an 8,000-acre lake between Sanford and Winter Springs, known for its massive alligator population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Captain Lockhart said he received an unusual call from a friend: “Do you think you can carry a helicopter on the front of one of your boats?” To be more specific, a 1,500-pound helicopter.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Photos shared with FOX 35 Orlando. <\/p>\n

\u2018The Green Mamba\u2019 to the rescue <\/p>\n

Captain Lockhart said he quickly went to work to figure out if any of his airboats could hold a helicopter \u2013 and, if so, how to get that mission done. His boat, Green Mamba, was selected for the job.<\/p>\n

But, it had to be prepped to carry a heavy and wide helicopter.<\/p>\n

“We had to take this railing off,” he told FOX 35’s Esther Bower, pointing to a safety railing at the front of the boat.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Fourteen guys boarded the boat to meet the helicopter and its crew at the island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next challenge: Moving the 1,500-pound helicopter across the island and over the water, then into the boat.<\/p>\n

Using wood pilings, they had to manually maneuver the helicopter about 75 yards from the center of the island to the water’s edge.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s 14 of us. 5 on each skid. 4 on the tail. Alright cool we can get this thing on there and we just loaded it up,” Lockhart said.<\/p>\n

A race against time: Storms moving in <\/p>\n

It was also a race against time as showers and thunderstorms were moving in.<\/p>\n

“Hey listen, the sky is talking to us. It\u2019s getting dark. We need to get a move on,” Lockhart warned the crew.<\/p>\n

The helicopter was loaded onto the airboat and transported slowly and steadily to the boat launch a mile away, Lockhart said.<\/p>\n

“There was a little puckering when we were pulling off into the water for sure because we could have went off and went straight to the bottom,” Lockhart admitted.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> Captain Lockhart shared photos and videos of the helicopter rescue on social media. .FOX 35’s Esther Bower talked with Captain Lockhart on Monday, July 6.<\/p>\n

Florida News<\/a>Unusual<\/a>Instastories<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downed helicopter, crew rescued from alligator-infested Lake Jessup Central Florida Airboat captain Derrick Lockhart recalled a unique call…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[18,1219,19,150451,17,5,133,24868,95092,107,461],"class_list":["post-573575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-eire","tag-fl","tag-ie","tag-instastories","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-science","tag-series","tag-unusual","tag-us","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116879623352370495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}