SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – A man was rescued in Lake Jesup on Thursday morning after a small plane crashed and overturned in the Seminole County waterway.
The single-engine experimental airplane, which can hold two people, crashed near State Road 417 while trying to land in the lake.
The Seminole County Sheriff's Office said the man, identified as David Mazer, was not seriously injured and was the only person aboard the plane. Mazer told authorities he had just taken off from Sanford-International Airport and was going to practice water landings with his seaplane and forgot to put the wheels up, causing the crash.
Police released 911 calls late Thursday.
"I found an aircraft out here upside down in Lake Jesup," said the caller. "I don't know if there's anybody in it or not, but I think you better get somebody out here."
When he called, the caller told dispatchers he thought the plane recently crashed.
"I was out here fishing. I saw this thing out here and I wondered what it was. I'm cruising around it right now," said the caller. "There looks like a little oil slick. So, might not have been out here too long."
Deputies said the plane had its landing gear down but flipped over while touching down and crashed into the water. Local 6 News helicopter Sky 6 showed a sheriff's boat next to the plane, which remains upside down in the lake.
Lake Jesup is home to more than 10,000 alligators -- the largest concentration of the beasts in any lake in the United States.
No other details were immediately known.
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