A search and rescue drone is an unmanned aircraft used by emergency services, such as police officers, firefighters or volunteer rescue teams, ideal for searching over vast areas for missing persons and crime victims in need of rescue and in any environment.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can provide real-time visual information and data in the aftermath of an earthquake or hurricane. They can also become an eye in the sky to locate a lost person in the mountain for example.
When a disaster or incident threatens lives and livelihoods, emergency responders need information and real-time imagery in order to make better decisions and save time. UAVs can provide situational awareness over a large area quickly, reducing the time and the number of searchers required to locate and rescue an injured or lost person, greatly reducing the cost and risks of search and rescue missions. The possibilities for helping ensure public safety are endless.
AltiGator’s drones are designed to provide cost effective, real time data and imaging, day or night, in challenging conditions and without risk to personnel. Aiding in the search for missing persons is the infrared (IR) thermal imaging camera that can detect human body heat. This capability greatly increases the ability to find people or objects at night that may be hidden, even during daytime operations.
Applications include:
- Search for suspects and missing persons
- Accident or crime scene investigation/documentation
- Search and recovery missions
- Disaster & emergency analysis
AltiGator’s involvement in Hellenic Rescue Team operations
As part of the operational training of its members, the Hellenic Rescue Team conducted a full-scale exercise in the area of Athens. The goal was to maximize collaboration between governmental or non agencies, involved in such an incident.
The theme was the rescue operational organization after an earthquake.
Teams with heterogeneous skills had to collaborate together in a limited geographical area.
The site of operations was an old industrial complex deliberately destroyed before being eliminated.
This place, located in the middle of an urban area, provided the perfect theater for such a simulation with real unsettled and unstable rubble, filled with gravel, dust and mixed with sharp and rusty scrap.
It is in that context that the teams worked with non-stop turns for 24 hours, each following a different scenario and unknown in advance. Several rescue operations took place simultaneously, the goal being to work on multiple fronts without disturbing each other. During the entire period of the exercise, participants and material have been evaluated according to international rescue requirements.
All over the day and the night, AltiGator’s drones have been ensuring the surveillance of the activities from the air. Thanks to our aircrafts, every director of operations had valuable overview information at his disposal, saving a lot of time which is so precious in such situations.
Each of the coordinators involved in the event was able to appreciate an overview of the work of teams engaged on the field, without having to move from the headquarters.
It is clear that the amazing speed of deployment of our drones, their versatility and ease of use are extremely valuable for the assistance to the teams. The air support is deployed with ease and in a minimum of time.
Most often, reduced middles like a car or a motorcycle, are enough to carry our drones to the nearest place of the disaster scene.
In a few minutes, they transport the eye of the observer just above the location of the incident, sweeping broad surfaces, flying over abrupt, inaccessible, distant or dangerous areas for the men that operate on the ground.
During the day and the night, the operational support provided to the rescue teams by our drones has demonstrated its effectiveness by cleverly operating over complex areas, often unapproachable, rude and risky.
Complete RTF solution: XENA Rescue
See also: Drone to rescue immigrants
