April 18--An unidentified man in his 20s who took a spill off a Cherokee Trail cliff was in serious condition Thursday at University of Tennessee Medical Center, authorities said.
The man fell about 150 yards from a pre-dawn perch where he and a co-worker had gone to view the city lights on the other side of Fort Loudoun Lake.
He was rescued about 6:30 a.m., according to Knoxville Fire Department spokesman Capt. D.J. Corcoran.
"He was broken up pretty bad," Corcoran said. "He tumbled, fell, somersaulted about 150 yards down the bluff. He's in serious condition."
Corcoran said the incident began about 4:18 a.m. when a man, also in his early 20s, called E-911 to say his friend had fallen off the overlook.
The unidentified man said he and a co-worker from a West Knoxville restaurant had gotten off work about 12:30-1 a.m. and decided to head for the overlook near a water tower off Cherokee Trail. Corcoran said the man who fell is from Florida.
The men went to apartments off Cherokee Trail and walked a trail at the back of the parking lot, Corcoran said. The men apparently had been at the overlook for a while when the mishap occurred.
"They were going to look at the city lights from the overlook and he turned around and his friend was gone," Corcoran said.
Emergency responders were unable to locate the missing man from above, so the Fire Department engaged its search and rescue team to rappel down the steep cliff. Those emergency personnel made the first contact with the injured man, who was unable to call out for help, Corcoran said.
Firefighters located the injured man about 5 a.m., Corcoran said. He was "in and out" of consciousness, Corcoran said.
"We saw him and then we had to get down to him," he said.
Because the man was about 20 feet from the shoreline of Fort Loudoun Lake, rescuers opted to lower the victim to a boat rather than bring him up the bluff.
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