DJI, a leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, today launched
an online reference to track events around the world when a drone helped rescue
someone from peril. The Drone Rescue Map, available online at https://enterprise.dji.com/drone-rescue-map,
shows how more than 400 people around the world have been helped by drones in
more than 200 emergencies, and will be continually updated as new rescues
occur.
The DJI Drone Rescue Map has been compiled from news stories
and social media posts from authoritative sources such as police departments,
fire departments and volunteer rescue squads. Each entry on the map includes
the location and date of the incident, a brief description, a link to the
original story or post, and an easy way to share those incidents online. To
make the map as definitive as possible, DJI encourages public safety agencies
to share additional drone rescues so they can be included.
“The DJI Drone Rescue Map is now the best global reference
for how effective drones are in emergencies, and allows the world to see the
tremendous impact drones have had in finding lost people, shortening searches,
reducing risks to rescuers and saving lives,” said Romeo Durscher, DJI Senior
Director of Public Safety Integration. “Public safety workers already know how
drones are revolutionizing their work, and now the rest of the world can see
their amazing stories in one place. The DJI Drone Rescue Map honors the
incredible rescues they’ve made, and will allow everyone to see how drones help
save people in the future.”
The DJI Drone Rescue Map includes instances of drones
finding people lost in forests, fields and mountains, often in darkness using
thermal imaging cameras; dropping life preservers to people struggling in
water; locating boaters stranded on remote waterways; and helping rescue people
who were at risk of harming themselves. The map does not include incidents when
a drone is simply used as part of a larger search process; instead, a drone
must have directly located, assisted and/or rescued a person in peril.
Many of these incidents illustrate how drones can find
missing people more quickly than a traditional ground-based search, allowing
victims to be brought to safety faster, more easily, and with less risk and
burden for their rescuers. In some of the incidents on the DJI Drone Rescue
Map, the drone helped accelerate a rescue and allow first responders to operate
more efficiently. In other incidents, the drone clearly made the difference
between life and death.
“I know how important drones are for people in distress,
because a drone saved my life,” said Jason Mabee, a Maryland man who was
injured and near death last year in a local park when he was found by a
volunteer drone pilot. “My family and I are eternally grateful that a total
stranger was able to use his drone to find me. It’s comforting to know that
drones are helping so many other people around the world too, and I hope the
DJI Drone Rescue Map demonstrates just why drones are so important in
emergencies.”
“Drones have changed the game for finding and saving people
lost in difficult conditions, and twice last year drones made the difference
for us in finding and saving stranded hikers in dangerous terrain at night,”
said Kyle Nordfors, Drone Team Coordinator for Weber County Search and Rescue
in Utah. “Drones helped make these rescues possible while reducing risk and
strain on our volunteer rescue force. We’re excited to see our successful
efforts represented on the DJI Drone Rescue Map, and we hope it shows people
all over the world how important drones are for saving lives and protecting the
rescuers.”
PC Tom Shainberg, Senior Drone Pilot of the Alliance Drone
Team for the Devon & Cornwall and Dorset police forces in England, said:
“The Alliance Drone Team is proud to be a leader in adapting drone technology
for police incidents, and we’re glad to see our successful drone rescues – such
as finding a vulnerable man huddled near the edge of a cliff – being shared
wider, along with similar accomplishments from other public safety agencies
from around the world via the Drone Rescue Map.”
The map includes rescues recorded in 27 countries across
five continents, and shows how drone technology has moved from an experimental
concept to standard public safety equipment. The first drone rescue was
recorded in Canada in 2013, the next one was more than a year later, and early
examples of drone rescues were as likely to be performed by helpful bystanders
as by professionals. Today, drone rescues are reported about once a week on
average, and public safety agencies routinely share those success stories on
social media.
“Hundreds of examples now make clear that making drones
widely accessible, with low barriers to entry and subject to a progressive set
of operational regulations, leads inevitably to saving more lives around the
world,” said Brendan Schulman, DJI Vice President of Policy & Legal
Affairs. “The DJI Drone Rescue Map is a powerful resource for policymakers to
understand the impact drones have on protecting vulnerable people in their own
communities, and the detrimental consequences of policies that would restrict
or discourage the use of drones, or increase the cost of using them. Regions
with less favorable operating rules for drones appear to have substantially
fewer reports of drone rescues.”
DJI has previously released two detailed reports on how drones have been used to rescue people from peril around the world. The first, in 2017, counted 59 people rescued by drones, and the second saw the global total rise to 124 by 2018. DJI monitors global news coverage, drone-related social media, and other sources to find new examples of drone rescues, but understands that many similar incidents may not yet be recorded on the map. Anyone who knows of a drone-involved rescue not included on the DJI Drone Rescue Map can submit it through a form at the bottom of the map page. These submissions will be reviewed for publication on the map, so DJI asks anyone submitting information about a rescue to respect the privacy rights and expectations of the persons involved, and to not share any confidential or sensitive information about agency operations.
