Helicopter Lifts Boat Stuck In Sandbar At Keystone Lake

By Craig Day, The News On 6

LAKE KEYSTONE, OKLAHOMA -- A helicopter was brought in to lift out a jet boat stuck on a sandbar at Lake Keystone Monday.

It's something you definitely don't see very often and a predicament David Dees never thought he'd be in.

"Labor Day didn't turn out like I wanted it," Dees said.

A week and a half after buying a 17-foot jet boat, Dees wanted to see a part of Keystone Lake he'd never seen, only to get it stuck in the sand near Osage Point.

"Basically once you get on the silt, it's like suction, it's like, you're done," he said.

For four weeks, Dees waited patiently and hoped the water would come up, but it didn't.

"It's probably I think about five feet down below where it was," he said.

Now, the boat has settled deeper into the muck. It wouldn't budge.

"Wasn't it the Minnow from Gilligan's Island? That's exactly what it's doing," he said.

You couldn't tow it out, so Dees is flying it out. Folks from R & R Boat Recovery, a local business helping with the effort, came to watch.

"We just came to check it all out and see what's going on," Lakea Cole, R&R Boat Recovery, said. "It's not every day you have a helicopter lifting a boat."

First a crew from R&R secured straps around the boat. Next, a helicopter attached a steel cable and a hook and began lifting it. But it turns out the boat was several hundred pounds too heavy. After a couple of hours of offloading fuel to lessen the load, they tried again. This time, it worked!

"Hey, good news is, if it stays like this maybe I have another month to play with it," Dees said.

The helicopter carried the boat out of the water and into the sky and put it right down onto its trailer to be hauled away.

"Only thing I can say is thank you God, you know," he said.

Other than some cleanup, it's in good shape and Dees is thankful.

"I'm very glad to have it back. Definitely glad to have it back," he said.