![\"<div>Photos](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/43e6300ae50586fe9efab2383d2f51da.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThe Brief<\/p>\n
After a helicopter made an emergency landing in the middle of an alligator-filled lake in Florida, an airboat captain was among the first to respond.<\/p>\n
The helicopter experienced mechanical issues and needed to land quickly. So, the crew found a floating island in the middle of Lake Jesup.<\/p>\n
Captain Derrick Lockhart and his team made quick adjustments to an airboat to help carry the 1,500-pound helicopter to shore.<\/p>\n
No one inside the helicopter nor part of the airboat crew were hurt, they said.<\/p>\n
ORLANDO, Fla. – 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.<\/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
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<\/p>\n
Fourteen guys boarded the boat to meet the helicopter and its crew at the island.<\/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<\/p>\n
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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief After a helicopter made an emergency landing in the middle of an alligator-filled lake in Florida,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[228684,228686,228688,228687,27075,61,60,228685,82,263],"class_list":["post-538364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-captain-derrick-lockhart","tag-captain-lockhart","tag-emergency-landing","tag-green-mamba","tag-helicopter","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lake-jesup","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}