Crashed helicopter removed from South Kingstown pond
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WLNE) — The helicopter that crashed into a South Kingstown pond Tuesday has been removed.
Another helicopter had to lift the crashed vehicle out of the water using a rope.
Wow!! What a scene here in South Kingstown as a Colonial Air helicopter retrieves the helicopter that crashed in Worden Pond Tuesday morning. It is back on land safely, nobody got hurt during the operation. @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/PepSa0tHFy
— Kaitlin Gehlhaus (@KaitlinGehlhaus) April 10, 2024
The helicopter crashed into Worden’s Pond around 9 a.m. on April 9.
“It was glass calm, like a mirror,” Rhode Island Environmental Police Chief Dean Hoxsie said. “It affects the pilot’s ability to have spatial recognition, that depth perception, so that was definitely a contributing factor.”
The helicopter’s crew were testing the vehicle’s sensors on the water when it crashed.
Neither the pilot nor the passenger were injured, but had to climb on top of the floating helicopter until being rescued by a nearby boat.
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management also had to deal with a “minor hazmat issue.”
“There was very little fuel that was spilled, this is not an environmental issue, and in the end, once they remove, you will not even know that this happened here,” Hoxsie said.
