VIDEO: Drone Rescues Two Australian Teenage Swimmers in Distress

A drone came to the rescue of two swimmers stranded off the coast of New South Wales in Australia, according to a new report.

Lifeguards received a distress signal during the viability testing of a new drone technology in emergency rescue, developed by Little Ripper Life Saver. It happened that the drone was airborne as at the time the distress signal came in, and it was deployed to rescue the swimmers.

“I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes,” lifeguard supervisor Jai Sheridan told reporters.

Footage captured by the drone camera showed two people in distress near a coastline. The video showed when the drone released a  yellow flotation device which inflated when it hit the water as the two teenagers swam towards it and clung onto before they got hit by waves.

Deputy premier and minister for regional New South Wales John Barilaro said it was the first time such technology had been used to save lives in the sea.

Ben Franklin, parliamentary secretary for Northern New South Wales, while also reacting to the incident, said it took the drone 70 seconds to respond, compared to the six minutes it usually takes a lifeguard to rescue swimmers.

According to reporting by QZ, The New South Wales government invested A$430,000 ($340,000) last year in a fleet of drones to patrol for sharks in the northern beaches of the state. Some of those drones are fitted with artificial intelligence to detect sharks. Drones have also been patrolling for sharks on Australia’s west coast, including one incident (paywall) in December where lifeguards evacuated a beach in Perth after spotting a three-meter shark swimming near a surfer and a group of children.