“I heard the helicopter loud and clear,” said Kelly Vokaty, a resident of Babcock Ranch in the Punta Gorda, Florida, area.
Vokaty watched from her lanai in Babcock Ranch Friday morning as a Black Hawk helicopter hovered over the water. However, what she didn’t realize was that it was carrying a school bus!
“Oh, I did see a shadow or something long. It looked like something was being carried, but I couldn’t differentiate what it was,” said Vokaty.
Residents in the area couldn’t help but do a double-take.
“Had I seen that live, I would have just, like, totally been freaking out. Did they take it out of the water or, you know, what happened?” said Babcock Ranch resident Richard Berlin-Velez.
Only sister station WBBH (Gulf Coast News) caught this footage on our live weather cameras Friday morning. Our team reached out to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office for answers.
The sheriff’s office says its dive team is practicing how to save people in the water.
“It’s something that you don’t see every day. But when you learn what’s happening, you’re amazed,” said Berlin-Velez.
CCSO says its dive team visits Babcock Ranch multiple times a year to practice underwater extractions, using setups like a submerged bus and dummies to prepare for real-world emergencies.
“We’re just lucky to live in a community where we have the backdrop for them to learn what they need to do to save lives,” said Vokaty.
