I was sitting in the Jeff Oestreich pottery class this afternoon when two guys came in and told us there was a plane - upside down - in the lake. The session ended at about 4:20 pm and since the plane was by the park two blocks from my apt (on the way home from school) I drove past. Sure enough all you could see were the pontoons:
I was standing in front of one of four sea-planes that were on (or in) the lake. When I walked down to this red plane I asked the lady (about my age) who was standing by it if everyone was ok and she said yes. Obviously I was relieved. I took some pictures and talked with this woman, an older man and a younger guy. After I'd been there for about five minutes or so I heard her say to someone "Yeah my Dad..." Then I realized it was HER father who had been in the plane and I got the entire story from her while we were watching the rescue/workers.
Apparently they (the four planes) were filled with friends and family all headed up from southern MN to northern MN to go fishing. They saw a storm headed this way so they turned back around and landed on our lake to wait it out. The storm passed and they took off one by one. When three planes were in the air, and the dad was getting ready to take off a huge gust of wind came and tipped over his plane. These things are really hard to tip over so this was a crazy-fluke accident. Once in a lifetime. Luckily the water was only around chin level in this part of the lake and the dad was able to get out and walk back to the shore. One of the ladies in another plane called 911 right away and all three planes landed.
Rescue showed up in the form of suited water rescue guys and the sheriffs department.
A couple of sheriffs boats/pontoons:
Two guys in Yellow Suits - that were in the water:
They had been trying for some time to turn the plane over, but the ropes kept breaking and it would only get to a certain point and the weight of the wings (water and fuel) would drag it back under. Shortly after I got there the boats came back and someone went to get some stronger ropes.
Then they headed back out (dad included) to try and right the plane. You can hear his daughter in the background as it started to climb out of the water. You can hear the wind - and see the camera shake from it. Sorry about that. (50 sec video)
But then it was stuck in the upright position. Here you might be able to see the yellow dots in front of the wings, the two guys in the water had to cut slits in the wings to let the water (and fuel - ugh) drain out into the lake so they could get it light enough for the boats to finish righting it.
In these videos they they're hauling the plane around in circles to get it upright. I had to split it up so Photobucket would take it.
Once they got it close enough to land they hauled it in by hand (dad was right there with them).
Other than where they had to slit the wings, the only damage to the plane was a little scraping on the cone.
Then they got this weird drill-pump thing that sucked the water out of the pontoons.
In the end his daughter (who'd acquired a vehicle from somewhere) asked me how to find a local hardware store so she could get some things they needed. She'd never been here before and while the place was very easy to find I didn't want her to get lost on top of everything else, so I had her follow me there and then I headed for home.
They're going to take the wings off the plane and haul it back in pieces.
The funny thing... according to the daughter the dad was still bound and determined to get some fishing in this weekend.
That's SOOO Minnesotan.
The man had built the plane by hand, so it was his baby. He's so unbelievably fortunate and I'm glad to say this was an adventure with a happy ending instead of some tragic tale.