Fisherman Saves Drowning Person with Drone!
Rescue at Sea: Drone Saves Teenager from Strong Current
Earlier this year, strong tidal currents have already claimed lives in the US. However, last week a teenager from Florida was saved from becoming another statistic thanks to the quick response of a shark fisherman, who used his drone to rescue her.
On Thursday, Andrew Smith went to Pensacola Beach to fish after finishing work. According to WSVN, Smith stated: “I wasn’t even going to go out, but my friend convinced me.” Just 10 minutes after arriving, a young girl came running up asking if they knew how to swim because her friend was struggling against a strong current about a hundred meters from shore.
A Heroic Rescue Effort
Smith cannot swim because of a medical condition. However, it was also because of this condition that he used a drone instead of a kayak to bait the sharks. As the ocean continued to carry the teenager further out to sea, Smith said: “I looked at the drone and thought, ‘Well, I can’t swim, but the drone can.’” He attached a flotation device to his drone and flew it over the water, intending to give the girl something to hold onto until help arrived. Unfortunately, the first attempt failed due to strong winds.
Someone nearby gave Smith another floatation device to try again. He said: “We had to descend very slowly because there wouldn’t be another opportunity.” Fortunately, Smith managed to lower the flotation device “until I could see that she could grab it with her hands, and then I lowered it a little more and released it. She managed to get on it and started floating.”
A few minutes later, paramedics arrived. In total, the teenager spent about ten minutes trapped in the tidal current. After being checked by healthcare professionals, she was able to return home safe and sound. In an interview with ABC News, Smith stated that authorities confirmed that without his help, the girl would not have survived.
Smith mentioned that the incident took place near Fort Pickens in Pensacola Beach, an area with restricted airspace. If the girls had been a little farther away, he told WSVN, he wouldn’t have been able to fly his drone. This has prompted officials to consider regular use of drones as life-saving devices, raising the perennial question: what more can drones do?
Pros and Cons of Drone Usage
Drones often receive criticism, and rightfully so. In the hands of law enforcement, unregulated drone usage has facilitated surveillance. Civilian drone operators can also cause significant issues. For instance, during this year’s Palisades fire, a firefighter aircraft had to be grounded due to a drone, and in February, the Florida Senate introduced a bill allowing individuals to shoot down drones.
However, in capable hands, drones can be incredibly useful. They are used for tracking wildfires, and researchers have proposed that drones could enter and map buildings on fire. In search and rescue operations, drones have also proven effective. Years ago, a drone located a Scottish climber in the mountains after he fell from an ice cliff. A study found that rescuers would have faced “immense challenges” such as “a very vast search area, and altitudes approaching the limits of human physiological function. Without the use of the drone, locating the climber and executing such an efficient rescue would have been an unlikely task.”
This article has been translated from Gizmodo US by Lucas Handley. You can find the original version here.
