Skip to main content

In a first, drone rescues teens caught in riptide in Australia

A yellow flotation device dropped from a flying drone spread near two teenagers caught in a riptide in heavy seas off the Australian coast. (Photo via AP)
A flying drone has dropped a flotation device to two teens caught in a riptide in heavy seas off the Australian coast in what officials describe as a world-first rescue. Monty Greenslade and Gabe Vidler got into trouble on Thursday at Lennox Head, 750 kilometers (470 miles) north of Sydney.
They were about a kilometer (0.6 mile) from lifeguards who were about to start training with the new drones, equipped with a camera, rescue gear and six rotors.
After a friend raised the alert, lifeguard Jai Sheridan said he piloted the drone to the swimmers and dropped a rescue pod minutes faster than lifeguards could have reached the pair by conventional means.
“I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes. On a normal day, that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public,” Sheridan said in a statement.
Greenslade, 16, said Friday the pair were lucky that the drone had been nearby.
“We realized pretty quickly that it was a rescue drone, once we heard it,” Greenslade told Nine Network television. “It was pretty noisy, so it was kind of hard to miss it, to be honest.”
“With the heavy waves, we were sort of going under and coming up for breath and … the drone dropped the package and we both grabbed on pretty quickly. It’s kind of obvious what you’re supposed to do with it,” he added.
Vidler, 17, told Nine: “It was pretty heavy out there and we were a little bit concerned.”
“It just dropped the life raft and so we just held on to that and just swam into shore,” Vidler said.
It was the first drone rescue since the New South Wales state government last month invested 430,000 Australian dollars ($345,000) in drone technology for rescue and shark spotting work in the state’s north.
“This is a world-first rescue,” state Deputy Premier John Barilaro said. “Never before has a drone, fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this.”



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over 1 lakh illegal immigrants arrested in US in 2017

On January 25, Trump issued an executive order to set forth the Administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities. (Representational Image) The US authorities have arrested 143,470 illegal immigrants this year, according to a latest report. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in its annual report that it has made 143,470 administrative arrests in fiscal year 2017, increasing 30 per cent Year-on-Year, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. An administrative arrest is the arrest of an alien for a civil violation of the immigration laws, which is subsequently adjudicated by an immigration judge or through other administrative processes. Of the total arrests, 110,568 occurred after January 20, which is a 42 per cent increase over the same time period last year, according to the report. US President Donald Trump took the oath of office on January 20 this year. On January 25, Trump issued an executive order to set forth the Administration’s immigrat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canada debates new harassment legislation amid #MeToo storm

We can afford to do more for people who need it by doing less for people who don’t: Trudeau’s message (Photo Source: Reuters) Canada’s parliament began debate on Monday on new legislation to tighten workplace harassment rules, including those governing politicians, as allegations of sexual misconduct mounted against lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum. The bill, introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in November, gained a new prominence after a federal cabinet minister and two provincial party leaders stepped down last week after being accused of inappropriate behavior. While the proposed law will govern all federal workplaces, including private businesses, the environment among political staffers in Ottawa was in focus as the #MeToo social media movement gained momentum in Canada. “It clearly is a crisis in this workplace,” Employment Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters outside the House of Commons. “We talk a lot about getting wom...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump administration drops Obama-era easing of marijuana prosecutions

The US Justice Department on Thursday rescinded an Obama administration policy that had eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that legalized the drug, instead giving federal prosecutors wide latitude to pursue criminal charges. The action by Attorney General Jeff Sessions could have damaging consequences for the burgeoning marijuana industry in the six states including California and Colorado that have legalized the drug for recreational use, plus dozens of others that permit medicinal use. Justice Department officials declined to say whether they might take legal action against those states, saying further steps were “still under consideration.” Federal law still prohibits marijuana even as some states move to legalize it. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said President Donald Trump’s top priority was enforcing federal law “whether it’s marijuana or immigration.” The policy change, detailed by Sessions in a one-page memo to federal prosecutors nationwid...
Post a Comment
Read more