Plane found at bottom of Lake Mead months after pilots

A small plane that was forced to make an emergency landing three months ago has been found at the bottom of Lake Mead near Nevada’s Boulder City, according to a newspaper. The two pilots on board managed to escape through the window as the plane was sinking and swim ashore.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that a local environmental consulting firm located the sunken aircraft last month using a remotely operated vehicle and sonar technology.

The pilot of the single engine Cessna 182C said the plane had engine failure as he and his co-pilot headed for the North Las Vegas Airport on Oct. 1.

“My first reaction was, I’m going to die,” pilot Chad Rodgers told CBS affiliate KPHO-TV in October. Rodgers jumped on the radio, and once they learned they were over Lake Mead, he and co-pilot Charles Wood worked together to figure out where to land.

“Once I heard the lake was beneath me, I was 100% confident we are going to live,” Rodgers said. “It was probably 30-40 seconds after we landed, the plane flipped over, it was already pretty much sunk.”

After the lake ditching, the two men escaped the aircraft through a window and swam to shore uninjured.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report said the plane nosed over and came to rest upside down on the lake bottom.

According to maps at FlightAware.com, the plane landed on the Arizona side of Lake Mead, near Bonelli’s Landing, CBS affiliate KLAS-TV reported at the time.

The pilot’s wife, Keri Rodgers, created an online fundraiser to raise money for the two men’s belongings that sunk with the plane.

“Officials did not expect to find any survivors. Three hours after the plane went down, both survivors were miraculously found unscathed,” she wrote. “They both managed to escape through the window as the plane was sinking to the bottom of the lake.”