Divers and crews retrieved a two-decades old Robinson R22 helicopter from the bottom of Lake Cumberland on Tuesday evening, according to Chris Money, one of the divers. Crews and divers staged at Halcomb’s Landing near Wolf Creek Dam as the operation unfolded and the aircraft was finally raised to the surface.
The helicopter crashed and sank in more than 100 feet of water in the main lake just west of Low Gap Island back in September 2002 while covering and filming the Poker Run, according to news reports at the time. The two people aboard received only superficial injuries and were rescued shortly after the aircraft went down.
Following an investigation, the NTSB said the official cause of the crash was the pilots failure to maintain a proper descent rate, which resulted in low rotor RPM.
We’ll have more details on the aircraft’s retrieval Thursday on local news.