r/searchandrescue • u/sarahtatuga • 17d ago
How much are drones used these days and have they made a huge difference in finding missing people?
I would think that drones are very helpful in finding missing people or people who have gotten themselves lost. How much are drones actually used? I would imagine they can cover a lot more ground than doing walking grid searches, etc.
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u/Available-Leg-1421 17d ago edited 17d ago
We have a drone team, but drones are pretty much useless in our area. They have had zero success.
Once the drone is above the canopy, Visual Observers lose sight of it within 50m and the cameras/ir can't penetrate to the ground.
Our drone team spent 5 full days looking for a subject. They flew over the subject 20+ times looking and never detected them. Our ground crew found the subject in 45 minutes.
Other people may have success, but we have had none.
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17d ago edited 5d ago
[deleted]
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u/TwigyBull 17d ago
I have no way of actually knowing. But I imagine this was a mock rescue to test the viability of the drone team
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u/sarahtatuga 17d ago
I hope the technology improves, because it seems like they could be extremely valuable, in theory.
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u/Charles_Wiliamson 17d ago
I do SAR in wilderness and urban/suburban settings. We have a large city that turns into forest within a 20 minute drive. What we have found is that drones are great for containment and searching large areas quickly that a ground team could not. An example is a cornfield or tall grass. Our drone with thermals cleared a 600-acre cornfield in 45 minutes, and that would have taken hand teams hours to do so.
To answer your question, do they help find missing people, I would say the answer is resounding. Yes, the caveat is that drones are great in specific circumstances, and they allow hand teams to do different tasks that would not be suited to them. They're not effective in every situation, but they always have a place during a search.
Another example of use is ISR. We had a search for an individual who eloped and was a risk of self-harm. We could use the drone to identify the person from a long way away and coordinate ground teams to intercept.
Hope this helps.
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u/Ryan_Van North Shore Rescue / BC Search Dog Association 17d ago
Depends on the circumstances. We have certainly had some great finds thanks to the thermal drone; other times it’s entirely useless.
An augmented program like Eagle Eyes is extremely useful.
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u/Ionized-Dustpan 17d ago
They aren’t a do it all solution and have limitations. They are a tool to add to the arsenal.
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u/SlippyJDonut 17d ago
I'm not trying to be rude, but this is a very broad answer and does not give almost any information to OP's question. I don't think he expected it to be an all-in-one "do it all solution." I think he was looking for a little more detail on how useful they can be.
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u/ScotchCoffee 17d ago edited 17d ago
We use them extensively.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1YwCuaJEBo
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1663CM63fQ/
The UAV team can drop food, water, clothing, and a radio.
If we have cell service we can live stream the find back to Command for the family to see.
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u/dromard666 17d ago
Like most tools, they're situational. We had a search recently where the missing person was in an area where a drove could have detected them. However, they had not been assigned to that area before the subject was located by a different resource.
Drones can be very helpful at night when they have FLIR. We recently found a person lying in a yard using FLIR. It was on a fixed-wing aircraft, but if we had had our drones, it was a high POD area we would have started them at.
Many folks don't think about using drones to provide situational awareness for the ICP. If you are putting together a rescue/recovery, you can live stream video from above giving the Ops Chief a clear view of how things are going. Or send the drone down over a cliff to show the rescue team what awaits them.
You can also use a drone to scout an area and evaluate it. For example, how high is the water in a river? Can a ground team cross at a specific point, or do they need to be driven to a crossing.
Our team is currently investigating ways to run combined canine/drone teams. If a canine has a direction of travel, we send the drone ahead to check for the missing person.
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u/RSC-007 17d ago
In my area we have some success stories with drones. Elderly person missing in a rural environment for 2 days. We flew the drones at night with thermals and found him alive. They are piloted by experienced people, and they quickly know how to distinguish an animal, person, rock that is still hot... which is not as easy as it seems.
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u/ZoMgPwNaGe SAR Drone Team Lead 17d ago
They are another tool in the box, and I say that as someone with hundreds of flight hours and a 2nd job devoted entirely to making videos about Drones especially how they're used in emergency response. They can make a huge difference. So can a helicopter. So can a canine. So can a half dozen people in boots. They are not the end all be all, but they're a phenomenal tool to have.
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u/renderedpotato 17d ago
We have used drones several times with almost zero success, the only things in the sky that have helped us is a helicopter and daylight. We've worked with partner agencies with drones with all the bells and whistles but ultimately arent that great, we've had finds by search teams that drones have already 'boxed off'.
Not saying never, but not now, and not in our terrain.
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u/sarahtatuga 17d ago
Thanks for explaining. That's a bummer, because I assumed (I'm just a civilian) that they would be game-changers.
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u/smittydc 17d ago
Very useful in marshy areas, cliffs, shorelines, viewing down into water (less glare), and when a subject wants to be found. Obviously not as useful for dense woods, deceaseds, etc. just another tool in the bag.
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u/Surprised-Unicorn 17d ago
We just got micro-drones a this year. Our first search after getting them we were able to locate the person in a body of water. On a search last year, the police drone was able to search a cliff area and locate the person. Both times though, the drones were used in fairly open space. We wouldn't be using them in heavy forest but likely use them for over bodies of water, along the shoreline, cliff areas, and areas with heavy salal/ blackberry bushes where the ground team can't push through.
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u/Mauronic 17d ago
Our program is fairly new but on a search last weekend we were able to cover assignments 3-5x faster than ground pounders in steep and technical wilderness terrain. So theoretically, that's very promising.
Since the person was lost weeks ago, we were able to experiment a bit. For our mission we captured images using orth and oblique settings and then ran them through Eagle Eyes Scan. I was very impressed with Eagle Eyes and look forward to using their real-time features in a hasty search.
If anyone wants to compare notes, feel free to reach out.
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u/Tigerdad1973 17d ago
We use drones during SAR and it helps a lot. Especially the ones we use with thermal camera.
We send them up and doing patrols looking for heat signal while we from Red Cross SAR team search by foot or atv.
Using the drones to find people is a hit or miss. But helpful to map out areas
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u/InfamousIndustry7027 17d ago
Go into your bathroom. Remove the toilet roll cardboard tubes. Tape the tubes to both eyes. Stand on the top of your house and try and look for anyone moving around in your garden.
Drones have their place but the lack of situation awareness, lack of image context, removal of orientation cues and the struggle with weather mean that it is few and far between when a really good win can happen.
Specific taskings like a house clearance for swat, or a small contained area search for a crim, overwatch… excellent.
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u/Mike22april 17d ago
In 4 years time, our underwater-drone / ROV was used approximately 40 times. It found the missing person once. And 39 times it confirmed that the missing person was unlikely to be in the waterbody.
Our aerial drones we more often succesful in finding the missing person. Still maybe only once a year with 50 times per year being deployed.
The success of using drones is not measured by the amount of times they are succesful in finding a missing person. But how often they positively added to the search, which is 100%. Being able to exclude an area is a success as well.
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u/sarahtatuga 17d ago
That makes a lot of sense that eliminating areas is extremely valuable. Also, I did not know there were underwater drones!
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u/BallsOutKrunked WEMT / WFR / RFR / CA MRA Team 17d ago
I'm in a mountain environment with a lot of wind and features. So far the promise of drones is always there but to date they haven't found anyone in my area. It always seems like realities on the ground (or in the air) make it that "it could have worked great if it wasn't for this one reason."
The signal gets blocked by granite/ridges, the wind is gusting like hell, a helicopter is in the area. Something always seems off. We have two really nice drones.
I've seen predator drones spot space blankets like a sore thumb, but I don't think you're asking about those kinds.
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u/sarahtatuga 17d ago
Very interesting, thanks. I live in Jackson, Wyoming, so I'm sure similar conditions happen here.
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u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz 17d ago
The TEXSAR guys use it almost exclusively. They've grown their program over the last 5 years substantially.
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u/ZoMgPwNaGe SAR Drone Team Lead 17d ago
Shout out to Charlie Grove who developed ADIAT at TEXSAR.
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u/caffpanda 17d ago
I wouldn't say almost exclusively, but we definitely use them extensively. They're amazing tools and suited to a lot of the terrain we operate in.
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u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz 17d ago
Oh man, any tips for those of us in orgs where it's new tech? Any 'from the ground up' advice? The success you guys have had is honestly inspiring.
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u/caffpanda 17d ago
I'm not on the UAS team so I'm the wrong guy to ask, but if you wanna DM me your info I can see if I can get you in touch with someone who'd be more helpful.
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u/Colourful_Q2 17d ago
We use drones. Kid was found with a drone just last month after 3 days of us searching. Definitely helpful.
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u/sarahtatuga 17d ago
That's great, I'm glad they work for some teams (it seems like the tech isn't there yet to make them game-changers for everyone).
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15d ago
I was on the drone team for our department. We used a sea otter underwater drone, and we've recovered many bodies that we otherwise might not have found in murky river water thanks to its sonar function. At the time I was getting ready to get married and move states, the team was talking about adding an aerial drone with a camera, but they did not have it by the time I left.
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u/RobertMilitaru 9d ago
in our area (I'm a mountain rescuer) they were useful in finding people who disappeared in the mountains
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u/scrotalus 17d ago
My agency has several. They work really hard to develop a skilled functioning program in a world of changing regulations. We are volunteers attached to a Sheriff Dept. We have our own SAR drones and the law enforcement side has incredibly more powerful and useful drones. Whenever the law enforcement team shows up, they have to immediately leave to hover over a barricaded suspect on the other side of town, so they don't get to help much. Our drones go up and do their thing, then a helicopter finds our subject. So, to date, I can't recall any finds due to drones, but they can fly along a trail and show the subject is NOT there, which is also helpful.
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u/sarahtatuga 17d ago
Oooooh, I didn't even think about drones being (potentially) useful is tracking down suspects/criminals.
Thanks for also explaining that they can help eliminate an area where a person may be, because that does seem like a great function to help narrow the search area.
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u/houseplant_jail 17d ago
I follow many drone SAR for animals. A Standard Poodle named Audrey, owned by a pro groomer, went missing from her pet sitters. The drone found her swimming in a body of water, then tracked her down in the forest across the river.
Another time a dog was trapped in a wetland or something with sinking pit areas. Too sensitive for a human to walk on but fine for the lightweight dog. They had drones go out with sausages hanging by a string to attract the dog away from the pits.