It's All In The Rotors

An imperiled deer with its body half on ice and half in frigid Lake Thunderbird waters was saved Wednesday afternoon by the quick thinking of Sky 9 KWTV helicopter pilot Mason Dunn, accoding to the Norman (OK) Transcript.

Mason used the downwash from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety, after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up.

A small crowd gathered to watch the deer struggling, its hooves repeatedly slipping, near the shore of Lake Thunderbird, near Norman around 4 pm., said the Associated Press.

Norman Police Chief Phil Cotten said when he got the call about 30 minutes before they got the deer out, police had come up with few ideas of what to do.

“(The officer in charge) gave me a couple or three options for what to do with that deer, none of which would have been pleasing to the deer,” Cotten said at the Crimestoppers-sponsored Public Safety Awards banquet Wednesday evening.

With the helicopter's camera rolling, KWTV pilot Mason Dunn used the wind from the rotor to push the deer, initially sending it into a break in the ice where the animal managed to hold onto the ice with its front legs.

Dunn then lowered the helicopter and the wind sent the deer sliding on its belly across the ice until it reached shore and scampered into a nearby wooded area.

FMI: www.wildlifedepartment.com/