Model aircraft able to do what dogs, volunteers, and helicopters could not

After authorities spent three days searching for a missing, elderly man in Wisconsin, a hobbyist launched his personal drone in a volunteer search effort and was able to locate the lost individual 20 minutes post launch.

During the initial search phase, authorities used dogs, helicopters, and employed local volunteers to comb the Fitchburg countryside in search of Guillermo DeVenecia, an 82-year-old man suffering from Alzheimer’s. David Lesh, a drone enthusiast who uses his personal model aircraft to make videos for his skiing and snowboarding business, was in town visiting his girlfriends’ family when he learned of the community-wide search. He decided to join in and use his drone to look at areas the missing man may have wandered into.

20 minutes after takeoff, Lesh spotted DeVencia stumbling around in a bean field.

Fortunately, a medical check showed DeVencia was only mildly dehydrated, despite having been gone for some 72 hours. During the post-discovery interview, DeVencia stated that he thought he had only been out for a short walk.

This feel-good story comes at an interesting time for drone technology as a whole, as it was only just recently that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lost a court case brought by Texas-based firm EquuSearch, which had employed the use of small drones in its rescues missions (the company was barred by the FAA from the use of unmanned aircraft for commercial purposes in 2007).

Further driving the point home that drones could actually be useful and shouldn’t necessarily be limited under a blanket ban, in March 2014 a US court found that the FAA’s barring of the commercial use of drone was illegal because it had not done enough to solicit comment from the public.

While the FAA is appealing this decision, it has stated that representatives will take a closer look at rules governing drones, with the goal of having new laws in place by the end of 2015.

Story via bbc.com

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