LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Lake Mead has many secrets.
Some are rooted in tragedy.
Some are evidence of crimes.
Despite receding waters, the lake's murky depths still cloak some of its secrets in silt, algae, and shadows.
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To understand how a single-engine Cessna became one of those secrets, we have to go back in time to the night of October 1, when private pilots Charles Wood and Chad Rodgers made an emergency crash landing in Lake Mead.
"I actually saw sparks and flames coming out of my side of the engine. Chad never saw that on his side. The cockpit filled with smoke," said Charles Wood.
"My first reaction in my head is, I just knew I was going to die," said Chad Rodgers.
The two were en route to Las Vegas from Arizona when the plane experienced some kind of engine failure.
The lake below allowed them to avoid disaster, but they had to act quickly. After hitting the water, the plane nosed over and started going down.
"It was about 30 to 40 seconds after we impacted the water and flipped over and got out of the airplane," recalled Rodgers. "It was already pretty much sunk."
And sunk it would stay while the National Transportation Safety Board searched for the wreckage so the agency could recover the sunken plane to investigate the crash.
After three months of failed attempts, some local experts were called in to help.
"The plane was pretty easy. It stood out," said Steve Schafer of Earth Resource Group.
This is a different kind of recovery for ERG's marine division. The environmental consulting firm typically donates its time and resources to recover human bodies — drowning victims the National Park Service cannot find.
"It's a great sense of relief when we are successful and can give some closure to the family," Schafer said.
Searching for a metal carcass provides a different kind of closure.
"They take it to Phoenix and take it apart and then NTSB will come in and determine just what caused that crash," Schafer said.
Once ERG was contracted, "We went out, and we found it in about four days," Schafer said.
They located the plane on Dec. 23, about a half-mile away from the spot where it disappeared off the radar, just through the narrows about a mile toward Bonelli Bay.
"And it was probably 150 feet or so offshore and only in about 50 feet of water," said Schafer.
Not that deep but still nearly covered due to all the sediment typical of the upper basin.
They found it with a little yellow submarine called a VideoRay Pro 4 ROV (remotely operated vehicle).
The high-tech device, which can go down to about 1,000 feet, is essentially an underwater drone. It can be controlled by a standard gaming controller like that you'd use for an Xbox.
It's equipped with propellers, lights, a claw that can grab things underwater, and a camera to show the people up top what it's seeing down below.
"The visibility at the lake — sometimes it's so poor we can't see it on the camera until we get close," Schafer said. "So, we'll see a spot on the sonar, pilot the ROV until we get to that spot, and see if it's a rock or a body or whatever we're looking for."
Then they mark it for the divers.
Divemaster Tim Seaman led the scuba team that recovered the plane on Jan. 3 by attaching large airbags and floating it to the surface.
This is the first plane ERG has recovered, providing a rare opportunity to be part of a survival story.
"I think, certainly, somebody was watching out for (the pilots), because another 100 feet in the direction that they were going, and they would've hit that finger of land, and I can't imagine it would've been a good outcome," Schafer said. "So, the depth they landed in, how close they were to shore, is about as lucky as you can get, I think."
"I think there was a bigger power there in play that night for sure," said Chad Rodgers. "I think we were able to have some angels and God looking out for us."
