Firefighter's Personal Drone Assists In Rescue Of Stranded Hikers | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

 Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-11.24.25

AirborneNextGen-
11.18.25

Airborne-Unlimited-11.19.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-11.20.25

AirborneUnlimited-11.21.25

LIVE MOSAIC Town Hall (Archived): www.airborne-live.net

Mon, May 28, 2018

Firefighter's Personal Drone Assists In Rescue Of Stranded Hikers

Two People And Their Incapacitated Dog Became Disoriented During A Canyon Hike

When two hikers and their dog became lost in Otero Canyon in the Tonto National Forest just east of Phoenix, NM, their rescue was helped by a local firefighter flying his personal drone. But it was not part of the search effort.

Television station KOAT reports that one of the hikers called 911 on May 12 about 1700 local time to say they were lost. A five-person SAR team was dispatched, including the firefighter and his drone.  

Within an hour, the hikers had been located, according to Bernalillo County Fire Department Lt. David Lujan. But then the team also became disoriented, he said. The firefighter who was part of the team and had packed his drone into the canyon deployed the aircraft and had it hover over their location. The aircraft helped the team find their way out of the canyon.

Lujan said that the department had been considering purchasing drones before the rescue, but "this particular mission ... proved that it could work," he said.

(Image provided by the Bernalillo County Fire Department)

FMI: Original report

Advertisement

More News

Classic Aero-TV: Pure Aerial Precision - The Snowbirds at AirVenture 2016

From 2016 (YouTube Edition): The Canadian Forces Snowbirds Can Best Be Described As ‘Elegant’… EAA AirVenture 2016 was a great show and, in no small part, it was>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecna P2012 Traveller

Airplane Lunged Forward When It Was Stuck From Behind By A Tug That Was Towing An Unoccupied Airliner Analysis: At the conclusion of the air taxi flight, the flight crew were taxii>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (11.23.25)

Aero Linx: International Stinson Club So you want to buy a Stinson. Well the Stinson is a GREAT value aircraft. The goal of the International Stinson Club is to preserve informatio>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (11.23.25): Request Full Route Clearance

Request Full Route Clearance Used by pilots to request that the entire route of flight be read verbatim in an ATC clearance. Such request should be made to preclude receiving an AT>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (11.23.25)

"Today's battlefield is adapting rapidly. By teaching our soldiers to understand how drones work and are built, we are giving them the skills to think creatively and apply emerging>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Change Display

Headlines Only | Headlines w/ Teasers | View Everything

Advertisement

Top Videos

Airborne 10.03.25: Phantom 3500 Buy, ‘Chinese Military Company’, NOTAM Redesign

Airborne Affordable Flyers 10.02.25: MOSAIC Start Date, AFE25 Tickets, ePulitzer

Airborne 10.01.25: New Gulfstream G300, Affordable Flying Expo Tkts, Starship 11

See All

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC