Helicopter pulled from lake weeks after crash during Colorado wildfire
A firefighting helicopter which dropped into a Colorado lake while fighting the Derby Fire last month was recovered this week.
The aircraft, a double-rotored Kaman K-1200, was trailered to the Eagle County Regional Airport on Thursday, presumably for further investigation into its crash.
The helicopter went down into Sweetwater Lake at 4:10 p.m. on Aug. 22, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The pilot was the only person on board and suffered very minor injuries. Another helicopter picked up the pilot flew that person back to the Eagle County airport.
According to FlightAware.com, the helicopter had been flying since 10 a.m. that morning after launching from the same airport.
Sweetwater Lake is 13 miles northwest of the airport. It lies within the White River National Forest. The National Transportation Safety Board was notified of the crash, according to a press release from the USFS. But a USDA Forest Service investigation team responded to the lake and is in charge of the accident investigation.
No further information since the crash has been released. The Vail Daily reported Friday that an official at the USDA Rocky Mountain Region office in Golden declined to comment about the helicopter's transport or the crash.
The helicopter is owned and operated by Precision Lift in Oregon. The company acquired the craft - its second at the time - directly from the manufacturer in 2018, according to a report from Connecticut-based Kaman Aerospace.
The Derby Fire was started by lightning on Aug. 16 about 13 miles north of Dotsero. Evacuations of several areas were ordered Aug. 20, including the camping areas at Sweetwater Lake and along the road leading to it. Fire officials began downgrading the evacuations Aug. 26.
The fire's southwestern edge stopped burning about a mile from Sweetwater Lake.
