DALLAS -- Dallas Police's Helicopter Unit is often the watchful eye in the sky, but Sunday night, the crew pulled off a successful, and rare, rescue operation.
Senior Corporal Mark Colborn has been a pilot for 37 years, 28 of those with Dallas Police. With all those years of experience, you may be surprised to hear he struggled to remember the last time he had a night like Sunday.
At about 10 p.m, the crew got word that two kayakers that missed their turnoff on the Trinity River. One was on shore, but another was stranded about a mile north of I-20.
"We found him standing in the center of the river at the old locks system," said Sr. Cpl. Colborn. "We can see his kayak down in the water. It looked like it had been wedged down in there."
Photos taken by the crew show the kayak in red, illuminated by the helicopter’s powerful light. Dallas Fire was on its way but had trouble getting to that spot by land. They knew Air One would be faster, if the crew was up for it.
"The only thing I was worried about was setting it down on the sandbar, whether the skids would sink into the mud or not," said Colborn.
Luckily, they didn’t, and this rare rescue worked.
"We put him in our back seat and took off!" he said.
That grateful kayaker and his two pilots celebrated on the ground with a selfie. All three of them grateful that the helicopter could help.