Positive Press – Drone Used to Help Locate a Girl Lost on Lake Michigan Ice
February 22, 2019With so many negative views of drones in the news today, it’s nice to see something positive from time to time. Here’s another post in my Positive Press series. This time it’s about how a drone was used to help locate a girl lost on Lake Michigan ice.
For more examples check out my Positive Press – Drones Used for Beach Safety and Positive Press – Drones Doing Good posts.
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So What Happened?
On Monday, February 18th, 2019, a neighbor of the Park Township noticed a dog howling on the ice of Lake Michigan. It appeared to be the same dog seen earlier walking on the ice with a 15-year-old girl. Although members of the fire department could see the dog on and off from the beach, the girl was nowhere to be found.
They decided to deploy a drone to help in their efforts to locate the girl. Based on the images, it appears to be a DJI Mavic series drone, although I can’t really tell if it’s series one or two.
They were able to locate the girl stranded at the bottom of a ledge about 1,000 feet offshore. It’s reported that she waved at the drone as it approached her. Apparently, she had fallen about 30 feet to the ledge below.
Rescue members were able to walk on the ice to the girl’s location and lower a ladder down to her. Apparently she did not enter the water at any time nor did she sustain any injuries. The girl was brought safely back to shore along with her dog, both without incident.
Here’s some news coverage provided by WZZM channel 13:
Here’s more coverage from Fox channel 17:
Conclusion
Drones are being used more and more to augment rescue efforts, assess varying situations and for safety in general. It’s nice to see that their use for good is starting to get some “face time” when it comes to the news and publicity.
I hope more and more of these types of uses get showcased in news publications as it shows that drones aren’t just toys or conduits for nefarious use but rather excellent tools that can contribute to the community.
I also commend other drone blogs/sites who report on such things. DroneDJ is one such site who also picked up on this incident.
Do you know of other positive press sources I can post about? Do you have something to say about this post? Please comment below. I’d love to hear what you have to say.
Thank you,
Scott Hinkle
MavicManiacs.com
Scott,
Like you, it is great to see positive drone coverage like this story.
I’m glad that the girl was able to be quickly located with the drone and rescued.
The drone was able to cover much more ground faster than people could have. I suspect that they were also able to deploy it much faster than than helicopter support would have required.
So true. I suspect we’re going to see a lot more being used by emergency services in the near future. I can see the next job posting now: Wanted, drone pilot for the Sheriff’s office.
That’s a gig I could enjoy.
Thanks for commenting!
Hi Scott, I read the whole about this positive press. You have put many important things here. The drone can move very quickly and can enter anywhere. I think it would not have been possible to save the girl without the drone. Delivering the drone can be of great help. This is a very useful thing
Thank you for sharing this.
Hello there,
Yes, drones can cover a lot of distance quickly and can traverse over difficult terrain. I’m not sure they couldn’t find the girl using other methods but the drone brought speed and safety to the search effort.
Thanks for taking the time to comment,
Scott