Shark hunter rescued a girl from the water with a drone

Drones help people a lot, and not only in war. A man who could only do his job with the help of a drone because of his health saved a girl with it.

Andrew Smith, from Florida, USA, cannot swim due to a seizure disorder. For the same reason, he uses a drone — to spread bait for his job of catching sharks, instead of doing it from a kayak.

According to WSVN, last Thursday, Smith went to work unscheduled: «I wasn’t even going to go out, and then my friend convinced me to go». It was an extremely useful outing, because within 10 minutes of arriving, a girl came running and asked if anyone knew how to swim. Her teenage friend was drowning about 90 meters from the shore, Fighting against the tide.

Andrew attached a floating rescue device to his drone and launched it over the water. He hoped to give the girl something to hold onto until rescuers arrived. Unfortunately, the first attempt was a «horrible miss» — because of the wind, the drone dropped the cargo too far. During the second attempt, the drone with another device provided to Smith by a bystander descended very slowly and carefully: it was the last possible attempt. Eventually, the girl was able to grab hold, «climbed on it, and began to float».

Paramedics arrived in a few minutes. In total, the girl spent about 10 minutes in the wave. A medical examination revealed no harm to her health. In an interview with ABC News, Smith said that authorities told him that the girl would not have survived without his help. This story prompted the government to consider the regular use of drones as rescue vehicles.