Search and Rescue

Search and rescue (SAR) teams have rescued hundreds of people across the world using drones. This is also a story where a drone helped to rescue a man who was stuck in deep snow without cell service. But this story comes with a rather unique twist because, here, the drone was operated by the man who needed to be saved.

There’s a new tech start-up on the block, and it’s armed with a patented drone solution that can help locate a missing person in just 30 minutes within a 50-meter radius.

Drones can be incredibly effective at finding missing persons since they can scan a large area quickly. But did you know there are several variables that can impact a drone’s ability during a search and rescue (SAR) mission?

Like other tech companies, DJI also gets its products into the hands of “real users” before they are launched officially. One such beta tester for the newly announced Matrice 30 enterprise drone was the Weber County Search and Rescue – a volunteer organization assigned to assist the Weber County Sheriff’s Office in the state of Utah. Incredibly enough, the SAR team was able to witness the lifesaving capabilities of the DJI M30 drone firsthand when a snowboarder became stranded in North Fork mountain valley land.

Mobile operator VEON, whose two biggest markets are Russia and Ukraine, says it will share the know-how of its drone-based AI solution with the international telecom community so that they can assist with the search and rescue of missing persons in their communities.

Edinburgh company Flowcopter is trying to bridge a major problem in deploying UAV on extended offshore missions: Smaller craft have neither the heft nor battery life to handle the exacting conditions, while gas-powered engines aren’t well-suited to quick adjustments rotor flight requires. Its solution is a long-distance, heavy-lift drone equipped with hydraulic motors that effectively regulate spin rates.

When it comes to search and rescue (SAR) operations, every second matters. And this new drone payload strives to not let any moment go waste as rescuers look for survivors trapped under debris or buried in an avalanche.

After 16 hours of being missing, a 72-year-old man was found crouched in a fetal position in thick vegetation by the Pueblo Police Department in Colorado. The essential element that led to the missing man’s discovery? A DJI Mavic 2 drone.

GuardianUTM, a cloud platform by UTM (unified traffic management) technology provider Altitude Angel, will be now be integrated into a not-for-profit search and rescue (SAR) solutions management system, SarStuff.

A police drone has captured the dramatic rescue of four men who had become cragfast (stuck on a rock face and unable to ascend or descend) on dangerous ground on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales.

When it comes to rescuing a panicking swimmer, every second counts. Lifeguards mentally urge victims to “hang on” as they rush through the heavy waters toward them. In such a scenario, if a drone flies above the distressed swimmer and drops a flotation device, it offers more than just hope for the victim to hold onto. This is exactly what Spain’s eastern coast has been witnessing these past few days.

The Mobile Police Department in Alabama has developed a drone rescue kit that can deliver a floatation device to swimmers in distress, and help stabilize them until a swim team can reach their location. What makes this “Float Responder” aquatic rescue drone even more special is the fact that it has been designed to honor the memory of a first responder who died during a surf rescue earlier this year.

Drones can often be faster and more efficient in search operations of lost or immobilized people in forests than helicopter or plane fly-overs, or rescue parties scouring terrain on foot. Still, their efficacity is limited by the inability of onboard tech to visually penetrate dense tree canopies. That may soon change.

When England’s Loughborough University student Dominic Leatherland was on a beach holiday with his family in 2017, he witnessed a teenage surfer being pulled out to sea due to rough conditions. While two off-duty lifeguards heroically saved the surfer, Dominic noticed the teen didn’t have access to a flotation device for at least 35 seconds. And he found himself thinking: “Why can’t we just fly a drone over the waves and drop a flotation device with the casualty?”

Scores of search and rescue workers at Miami’s Champlain Towers site have been nothing short of heroic in their hunt for victims buried by the building’s June 24th collapse. Among those are a team of Florida State University (FSU) drone experts gathering evidence at the condo disaster that may explain why the structure crumbled – and provide information on how similar failures may been avoided in the future.

As an initiative, it qualifies as “doing good for drones for good.” Tech, cloud, and solutions provider Aquiline Drones is offering its uncrewed aerial system (UAS) commercial training and education program free of charge to first responders across the US in gratitude for the work they do on everyone’s behalf.

The extensive search operation went on for 36 hours. But in the end, authorities at a German zoo were able to track and find Jang, an adorable, endangered red panda – with the help of a thermal drone.

With 24 people confirmed dead and 121 still unaccounted for, the still-standing portion of the Champlain Towers condominium building in Surfside, Florida, has now been demolished. Meanwhile, a drone video released by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue department before the demolition gives a glimpse of the rescue and recovery efforts at the site of the terrible tragedy.

Drones have been used to make countless deliveries in recent years, but a case in Wales took that service to another level when a police craft returned a missing elderly man to his panicked family.

There is no question that search and rescue drones are incredibly effective at finding missing persons. But it’s not often that you have similar events unfolding 600 miles apart on consecutive nights. But this is exactly what happened in Ohio and North Carolina this week. And both times, disaster was averted with the help of drones.

Nearly half of the people who drown in the Great Lakes every year drown in Lake Michigan. So now, one city in West Michigan is adding a specialized drone to its water rescue tools arsenal. Not only will this drone help South Haven Area Emergency Services (SHAES) responders to locate distressed swimmers, but it will also drop a floatation device to the swimmer in danger, reaching them about three minutes faster than a lifeguard.