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.”
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