Great story from the International Business Times by Jeff Stone. Just another way to use drones in our everyday life.
Firefighters had to use a drone to save a teenager and a younger boy when they became stuck on a rock in the middle of a raging current. Rescue crews tried to reach the pair in a raft — but when the waves became overwhelming they paddled back to shore and used a small unmanned aircraft to toe a line over to the boys.
Images taken by a DJI Phantom 3 shows how firefighters used a drone to reach a pair of stranded paddlers. Facebook.com/AuburnFireDepartment
The kids, age 18 and 12, were boating down the Little Androscoggin River in Mechanic Falls, Maine on Tuesday when they became stranded on a slippery rock surface. Only one was wearing a life jacket, and they couldn’t safely navigate the unpredictable rapids to shore. So Fire Chief Frank Roma, of Auburn Maine, a county in the state’s southern region, attached a rope line to his own DJI Phantom 3 and piloted the drone out over the middle of the river. He then sent a life jacket over the line and used the Phantom to watch from above.
“I was able to take the drone out to him; lower it down to his level,” Roma told WMTW, a local TV station. “He was able to disconnect it and get the life vest on and then I was able to put the drone back up as an aerial observation.”
Multiple videos and images on the Auburn Fire Department’s Facebook page detail the rescue, in which neither boy was injured.
Cheif Roma said he purchased the UAV with his own money but sees obvious new advantages for rescue teams if they invest in drone equipment. This rescue comes only weeks after lifeguard crews elsewhere in the U.S. began deploying small unmanned aircraft to patrol for sharks and other beach threats.
“I think we’ve only begun to scratch the surface for what their full capabilities can be in the emergencies field,” Roma told WMTW-TV. “I was able to see exactly what the drone was seeing. I was able to direct it to where it needed to be.”
Maybe it’s just me, but, did anyone else notice that the life jacket was thrown from someone on shore and NOT carried to wet cold kids by a drone?
Just sayn’
Good video though.
If you read the article it saids the drone carried the line out to the kids in the river and then a lifejacket was sent out using the line while the drone hovered above. Having a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus myself I think the lifejacket would have been too much weight for it to haul.
What you see on the line that’s thrown from shore is not a life jacket. it seems to be a flag/beanbag to make the line visible, the beanbag makes the line throw able. We used the same techniques in the Coast Guard. It’s really hard to throw a life vest with any accuracy.
No matter who threw what or how it got there, the main importance is the kids got rescued! Also I got into flying UAV’s about a year ago, own over 20 from Palm of you hand size, to the biggest 11 lb spreading wing model and they are fun when flown responsibly and will have an impart on all our lives bigger than most folks can even imagine!
So lets not be critical, fly safe and never fly your UAV where it could cause injury or interference with professional rescue personal just trying everything available to save lives!
Please change impart to impact? Bobo.sorry