An April evening that started as a routine training session turned into an anything-but-routine recovery operation for members of the Smith Mountain Lake Marine Volunteer Fire/Rescue.

SML Fire/Rescue members had gathered on April 23 at SML State Park Visitor Center to conduct classes and training for a group of Bedford County Fire Rescue firefighters when an emergency call came in. After hearing the report of a person overboard near B11, SML Fire/Rescue immediately went into action, heading several fireboats across the Blackwater toward Contentment Island, the accident scene.

Upon arriving, SML Fire/Rescue members learned that a free-dive rescue in the 52-degree water had been attempted, but the diver was unable to locate the victim of the apparent drowning.

SML Marine Fire/Rescue Chief Jack Gautier and his team of 14 set up their rescue/recovery equipment, including a state-of-the-art VideoRay, a miniature submarine that uses a device similar to sonar and a camera to transmit underwater images.

"It's a miniature sub that can go down 200 feet into the water," said SML Fire/Rescue member Allan Busch. "Jacques Cousteau would have loved to have had this."

The portable, durable underwater robot is attached to a tether, and operated from above by controls similar to those found on a video game.

About two minutes after the VideoRay was set up, operator and EMS coordinator Diana Rainville gave the signal to lower it as a guide for three search divers. The body of Jim Hankla was recovered and turned over to the Glade Hill Rescue Squad.

"It took the divers about two minutes to find the body," said Busch. "Without the VideoRay, it could have taken much longer.

It took SML Marine Fire/Rescue approximately 55 minutes to make the recovery from the time the emergency call came in.

The VideoRay was donated to SML Fire/Rescue by Harrisonburg businessman Walter Curt, who survived a boating accident in 2007. Two of the four men on board with Curt died, and Curt had brought the state-of-the-art locator to SML to try and find the body of one of the victims.

After the recovery of his friend's body, Curt donated two VideoRays to SML Fire/Rescue and paid for the training needed to operate them.

"Sometimes you can not make that quick rescue and save a life, but it can also be important to make a quick recovery for the family so they can have closure," said Gautier.