During a drone demonstration by local fire and police departments in Ohio, a demo flight turned into a real search and rescue operation when a father asked Fire Chief Brian Miller and Police Cpl. Justin Alloway to help locate his nine-year-old daughter. It all happened during the Fourth Friday event last week in Westerville when thousands of people crowd the streets of the Ohio town. Hannah, the missing girl, had walked ahead of her family and the father couldn’t find her anymore. Luckily, the DJI M210 drone located the girl within minutes and reunited the family. Drones for good!

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Drone records rescue of a man in a wheelchair stuck in rising floodwaters. After spending more than 24 hours stuck in his motorized wheelchair in rising floodwaters, the 73 year-old-man from Mansfield said that he prayed to be rescued. According to local police, his family reported Jefferson missing on Saturday. The man who suffers from dementia was last seen around noon. Drones are increasingly being used during rescue operations to either find missing persons or as in this case to assist in the rescue.

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The Tulsa police department posted this warning video on Facebook in an effort to deter hobbyist drone pilots from hindering and endangering first aid and rescue operations in the flooded areas around Tulsa, Oklahoma. Various media also reported on drones getting in the way of rescue efforts in the flooded regions. The message is clear: fly within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules and please stay out of the way of rescue operations. And, always give way to manned aircraft.

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We have reported on many stories in which drones were used to find missing people, however, this one is a first. In Florida, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office deployed Six (!) drones to help find a missing 77-year-old man. The man, who reportedly suffers from health and mental challenges, was lost for two hours when the Sheriff’s Office was contacted. The CCSO deployed their Drone Operations Unit, who divided the search area in a grid and deployed six drones in search of the missing man. The CCSO obviously knew what they were doing and the man was found and brought back to safety.

What stands out in this story is not just the fact that drones were used on the search, but that the CCSO has a dedicated Drone Operations Unit that methodically executed the search and use multiple drones to find the missing person faster. I hope this story gets picked up by many police and fire departments around the country (world) as it is a great example of how drones can be successfully used. You can read the report from the CCSO below.

According to DJI, this is (at least) the 228th person around the world who has been rescued with the help of a drone. Drones for good.

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Xenia police of Greene County, Ohio released a drone video of the moment that a 90-year-old woman, who suffers from dementia was rescued. Her daughter, Beverly Brown, credits the drone for helping find her mother and bringing her home safely. The search for the woman took about one hour, but would have taken much longer without the help of the unmanned aircraft. The video shows a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual as the drone that likely was used during the search. The woman was found during daylight conditions. There is no mention if the use of the thermal camera aided in the search. The missing woman was brought back home safely.

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Drones to the rescue! Yesterday, a drone assisted in the rescue of seven swimmers in Laulau Bay, Micronesia. The CNMI Department of Public Safety-Boating Safety Division received a 911 call about the distressed swimmers at 12:53 p.m. Shortly after receiving the call the DPS impact rescue boat was launched to bring the swimmers safely back to shore. The drone assisted in the rescue of the seven tourist swimmers in Laulau Bay by providing the exact coordinates of their location to the crew aboard the rescue boat.

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