Johnstown students preview drone emergency service program
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) — Community members and students at Greater Johnstown High School saw a preview of the newest advancement in emergency services.
Aerium, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a pipeline between students and the aerospace industry, demonstrated how one of its drones can deliver medical supplies to an emergency site. The drone service is part of a pilot program called Drone 814, which will soon come to the Johnstown, Westmont and Southmont areas.
'Today's event was an opportunity for us to display to the public the first demonstration,' Glenn Ponas, executive director of Aerium said.
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Once someone calls emergency services, the drone will head over to the site with a package full of supplies, featuring tourniquets, glucose for diabetics, Narcan for drug overdoses and electric defibrillators for heart failures. Once arrived, the dispatcher on the phone will instruct the patient to use the supplies until paramedics arrive on scene.
'We want to ensure that we are getting first response faster and that the outcomes for patients are better,' Ponas said. 'So once the 911 team gets there, the end result is that we have better patient outcomes at the end of that.'
Test flights are set to begin in the first week of June and continue into the summer. Drone 814 expects to release a regional rollout plan in October.
Click here to view the plan.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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