Latest news with #sharkfishing
Gizmodo
21-05-2025
- Climate
- Gizmodo
Florida Fisherman Saves Drowning Teenager With a Drone
Rip currents have already killed 11 people in the U.S. this year, but last week, a Florida teenager managed to avoid joining that group after a quick-thinking shark fisherman used his drone to save her. On Thursday, Andrew Smith went fishing at Pensacola Beach after work. Per WSVN, Smith said, 'I wasn't even going to go out and then my friend convinced me to go.' Only 10 minutes after he arrived, a girl came running up asking if anybody could swim. About a hundred yards away from the shore, her friend was battling a rip current. Smith can't swim due to a seizure disorder. However, that disorder is also why he uses a drone instead of a kayak to set bait for sharks. As the ocean continued dragging the teenage girl out, Smith said, 'I looked down at the drone and I was like, 'Well, the drone can swim but I can't.'' After attaching a flotation device to his drone, Smith flew it across the water. The idea was to provide something for the girl to hold onto until first responders arrived. Unfortunately, the first attempt was a 'terrible miss.' Per WSVN, Smith explained, 'I released it too early, it was really windy. Like, it wasn't close at all.' A bystander handed Smith another flotation device to try again. With this try, Smith said, 'You had to go slower and slower down to her because that was it. That was the last opportunity we were going to have.' Luckily, Smith was able to lower the device 'until you could see her hands grab it, and then I lowered it a little more and I released it. Then she climbed on and started floating.' Paramedics arrived several minutes later. In total, the girl spent about ten minutes caught in the riptide. After being checked over by medical professionals, she was sent home with a clean bill of health. In his ABC News interview, Smith said that authorities told him the girl wouldn't have survived without his help. Luck was on the girl's side in more ways than one. Pensacola Beach is home to Fort Pickens, which has restricted airspace. If the teenagers were just a little farther down, Smith told WSVN, he wouldn't have been able to fly his drone. According to ABC News, the entire ordeal has prompted public officials to consider regularly using drones as lifeguards, which raises an old question: Can drones be good? Drones rightfully catch a lot of flack. In the hands of law enforcement, largely unregulated drone use has facilitated mass surveillance. And regular people flying drones can cause major disruptions. During the Palisades Fire earlier this year, a firefighting aircraft collided with some idiot's drone and, in February, Florida's Senate introduced a bill that would allow property owners to use 'reasonable force' against drones. But drones can be quite useful in competent hands. For example, drones are used to track fires, and researchers have developed drones that could possibly enter and map the layouts of burning buildings. In search and rescue, drones are also revolutionizing missions. Several years ago, a Scottish mountaineer was located by drone after he fell from an ice cliff. A case study noted that rescuers would have normally have faced 'immense challenges' like 'a vast search area and altitudes near the limits of human physiologic function.' 'Without the use of the drone,' it continued, 'locating the climber and executing such an efficient rescue would have been unlikely.'
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
Florida shark fisherman saves girl caught in rip current with drone
A Florida shark fisherman is credited with saving a teenage girl trapped in a rip current, however, he never stepped foot in the water. Instead, he used his drone to get a flotation device out to her as she was being pulled away from shore. On Thursday, May 15, Andrew Smith had just clocked out of work when he reluctantly decided to head to Pensacola Beach to go fishing. "I wasn't even going to go out, but then my friend convinced me to go," he said. Pleas for help after girl trapped in rip current Smith said they arrived at the beach around 7 p.m. and about 10 minutes later panic broke out. "I was sitting there and this girl came running, asking if anybody could swim. I said no I absolutely could not swim. She was running and screaming and nobody could swim," he said. Smith said while he medically can't swim because he has a seizure disorder, desperately wanted to help. "Her friend was getting sucked more and more out, and I looked down at the drone and I was like, 'The drone can swim, but I can't'," Smith said. That's when he sprang into action. "I ran up and grabbed one of those (a flotation device) and ran back down to the drone. I flew it out and it was a terrible miss. I released it too early, it was really windy, like it wasn't close at all," he recalled. Smith said at this point the teen girl had been battling the rip current for five minutes and he knew time was running out. "I was shaking pretty bad, it was nerve wracking, I just about cried," he said. Second shot success Smith, however, didn't give up and another bystander gave him a second flotation device. Robert Nay, who was on the beach, used his cellphone to shoot a video of what happened next. He said he had never seen anything like that before and the girl was "losing steam very fast." "I flew it back out and after the first one I could tell how windy it was. So then I lowered it down, you had to go slower and slower down to her because that was it. That was the last opportunity we were going to have," Smith said. The opportunity was not wasted and Smith's mission was successful. "I lowered it until you could see her hands grab it, and then I lowered it a little more and I released it. Then she climbed on and started floating," he explained. Smith said five minutes later first responders arrived on the beach. "If it wasn't for that second drop, she wouldn't have made it. The EMS said she wouldn't have made it, the cops and the lifeguards," he said. The girl was checked out by a medical team and sent home with a clean bill of health. Nay called Smith a "true hero." Smith said the teen's father told him he was much more. "He talked to me for like five minutes, calling me his guardian angel and thanking me and stuff. It was pretty crazy," he said. Smith said the ordeal is a good reminder for beachgoers to pay attention to the flag warning system that tells people if it's safe to enter the water.
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Shark fisher uses drone to save teenage girl from drowning in Florida rip current
A Florida man who fishes sharks has been called a 'true hero' after saving a teenage girl from drowning in a rip current by using a drone to deliver a flotation device to her. Andrew Smith's heroics – which have gone viral in corners of the internet dedicated to uplifting news stories – unfolded after he left work on 15 May and made the last-minute decision to go to Pensacola Beach to try fishing in the waters there, according to the Florida station CBS 12. He had only been there 10 minutes when a girl ran up to him and his friend while asking if anybody could swim – which, due to seizure disorder, Smith could not. The girl's friend, meanwhile, was being sucked farther and farther away from the shore and into the water by a rip current that had ensnared her. 'She was running and screaming, and nobody [else out there] could swim' either, Smith said of the girl seeking help, as CBS 12 put it. Smith said he looked down at a drone he had and got an idea. He could have the drone fly a flotation device out to the girl in distress, who had been battling the rip current for about five minutes and realistically could not keep it up much longer. 'The drone can swim [even if] I can't,' he said he thought to himself. Smith's first rescue attempt did not go well. Fazed by strong winds at the beach that day, he released the flotation device too early – a potentially costly mistake that nearly overwhelmed Smith. 'I was shaking pretty badly,' Smith said to CBS 12. 'It was nerve wracking – I almost cried.' But Smith composed himself, got another flotation device from a bystander and loaded it on his drone. Smith said he flew the drone back out and lowered it more slowly than the first time, knowing 'that was the last opportunity we were going to have'. Smith recalled seeing the distressed girl reach up with her hand and almost grab the flotation device. He told CBS 12 that was his cue to lower the drone slightly more and release it. It worked, Smith recounted. 'She climbed on and started floating,' he said. First responders arrived about five minutes later. Local paramedics, police and lifeguards all said to him that the girl 'wouldn't have made it' if his and his drone's second flotation device drop attempt failed, according to Smith. Instead, she managed to get back to the beach and received a clean bill of health after a medical team evaluated her. CBS 12 reported that a bystander named Robert Nay filmed video of the rescue and remarked that he had 'never seen anything like that' in his life. To Nay, it was 'apparent the young girl was losing steam very fast', and he hailed Smith as 'a true hero', the news outlet reported. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Smith explained that the drone he had with him is how he positions bait when he shark fishes. Most shark fishers place their baits by kayak, but that tactic method is unsafe for him because of his seizure disorder, he told CBS 12. Had the emergency in which he intervened occurred in nearby Fort Pickens, Smith feared he may not have been able to execute the rescue. Fort Pickens is a no-fly zone for drones, he said. Smith made it a point to use the attention he had earned to remind people to pay attention to the flag system that authorities utilize on beaches to warn the public about dangerous water conditions. One red flag indicating hazardous conditions because of a high surf and strong current was flying on the day of the rescue that Smith pulled off. Complicating matters was that lifeguards were scheduled to patrol the beach until after the US celebrates Memorial Day on 26 May. As Smith recalled, during a five-minute conversation that he shared with him, the father of the girl the shark fisher saved used more glowing terms to describe him than the bystander who filmed the rescue. 'He … called me his guardian angel,' Smith said to CBS 12. 'It was pretty crazy.'
