A 34-year-old man was injured Friday afternoon when he apparently fell from a cliff at Center Hill Lake while trying to climb it.
Brian McKnight was flown to the trauma intensive care at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga with serious injuries, including several broken bones.
McKnight and a group of friends were apparently at the end of Potts Camp Road at the lake when they decided to cross the lake and climb the bluff.
McKnight had reportedly climbed nearly 100 feet when a large rock he was supporting himself with broke away, causing him to fall.
The rock reportedly landed on top of him after he fell onto a rock ledge several feet below.
Officials from the Corps of Engineer and members of DeKalb EMS and the DeKalb County Rescue Squad had to access the scene by boat.
After reaching McKnight’s position on the side of the cliff, rescue workers placed him in a Stokes basket and used rappelling equipment to get him back to the bottom.
The victim was then loaded onto a pontoon boat and taken back across the lake, where he was transported by DeKalb EMS to a helicopter landing zone in the Jefferson Community and airlifted to Erlanger Hospital.