Video: Nighttime Rescue Drill on Lake Minnetonka

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and Excelsior Fire District practiced a nighttime rescue operation on Carsons Bay Thursday night. The drill simulated a response to a snowmobiler who had fallen through the ice.

Deputies used a hovercraft and special ice rescue boat to travel about a half mile from the public boat launch on Carsons Bay to the "accident site" just of the southern tip of Big Island.

Many of those wetting lines in the dozens of ice houses along the route came out of their shacks to see what the lights and noise were all about, and deputies and firefighters talked with curious onlookers about the night's activities.

There have been no deaths this season in Minnesota due to thin ice conditions, although fluctuating weather has made ice thickness on Lake Minnetonka and other bodies of water throughout the state unpredictable. 

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