Two hikers and an injured dog had lost their way after five hours hiking in New Mexico Otero Canyon. Not knowing how to get back, they called 911 and asked for help. When the firefighters had located the hikers and were escorting them back to safety, they lost their way as well. At that moment a first responder used his personal drone to lead the group back to base.
DJI just released a new report that shows that 65 people have been rescued by drones over the course of last year. Combined with data from a previous report, DJI claims that 124 people in total have been saved by unmanned aerial vehicles around the world. Many of the situations where drones came to the rescue have been covered here on DroneDJ, such as the case of the unconscious man who was found in a ditch, or the swimmers who were thrown a flotation device from a drone, or the 86-year old man who was found in a field. Since no register exists where drone rescue missions are tracked, the actual number of people saved by unmanned aircraft is likely to be higher.
More and more drones are being used to save people’s lives. We have reported on a number of cases where drones came to the rescue and made the difference between life and quite possibly death. Take a look at some of these cases where a drone saved a man from hypothermia, found an 86-year old man who was lost, are able to hear people buried in the rubble after an earthquake or send edible drones to people in need of food. There are many ways in which drones can help save people’s lives. Today we learn about a heroic Icelandic drone rescue that took place in 2016 and for which the rescue team received an award at the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) Awards ceremony in Ljubljana, Slovenia. DJI and EENA also announced that they will extend their partnership to further improve the software and hardware required for search and rescue drones.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just approved first responders at the fourth busiest airport in the world, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to fly their drones directly over the airfield. DFW Airport will be the first airport in the US that is allowed to do so.
What can be a very effective, fast and affordable way to reach people in need? You guessed, right. Drones. Zipline has been using drones successfully in over thousands of missions to bring blood and medical supplies to people in need in Rwanda and Google has been delivering burritos by drone. Now an English start-up wants to bring humanitarian aid to people in need with edible drones.
A police drone outfitted with an infrared camera, helps locate the unconscious victim of a car crash freezing to death with hypothermia in a six-feet deep ditch in the middle of the night. The drone was sent into action after the victim was seen walking away from a car accident on the A16 near Ludborough south of Grimsby, Lincolnshire, where a car had flipped onto its side. Within minutes of the DJI Inspire drone taking off, the man was located.
A Florida woman shouted to the police: “Just kill me! Just kill me!” Instead, the police used drones to help end a 4-hour-long standoff. The 57-year-old woman had parked her Kia sedan right in front of a semi-truck at a Walmart parking lot on Dec 8.
On Friday afternoon an 86-year-old hunter from Hohestadt (Würzburg) in Germany goes back into the forest to check on a feeding place. He does not come back.
At around 8 pm that evening his wife gets worried and alerts the local fire department, which in turn informs the police. Soon after the hunter’s car is found but no sign of the man himself. More rescue workers are asked to help and before long ten search dogs, 30 firefighters, several policemen, and rescue workers of the Bavarian Red Cross and the Johanniter-Unfallhilfe are all looking for the missing hunter.
The Brecon Mountain Rescue Team in Wales, England will start testing drones and sonar in their rescue operations after yet another record year of callouts. One of the reasons for the increase in callouts is that exploring the outdoors is getting increasingly more popular. The Brecon MRT has recruited more volunteers and they hope, that in addition to the new drone technology, this will lead to more positive outcomes when the team gets called into action.
