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When Minutes Matter, Drones Are Delivering for Rescues

Search and Rescue teams from the Central Okanagan region and Vernon are gearing up for an active summer in 2025, focusing on water rescues at Okanagan and Kalamalka Lakes due to the frequency of drowning incidents in these areas.
This preparation follows a decade with 29 deaths at Okanagan Lake and eight at Kalamalka Lake, with around four drownings per year combined, making Okanagan Lake the deadliest in B.C.
COSAR uses innovative tools including Barrett, a guide dog trained to scent underwater victims, and a commercial drone that scans lakes up to 1,000 feet deep to speed up underwater searches.
Mitch LaRue explained that the drone is vastly more effective than a drop camera for underwater searches, allowing much faster coverage of areas in Lake Okanagan. He highlighted the challenge of locating targets in the vast lake without detailed planning, underscoring the value of using Barrett and the drone in search efforts.
These rescue efforts improve search speed and safety, help find missing persons even months later, and meet families' demands for answers, suggesting enhanced readiness and technology adoption for future emergencies.

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When minutes matter, drones are delivering for rescues

The Southern Arizona Rescue Association (SARA) is a group of volunteers and a resource for the Pima County Sheriffs Department. For the last couple of years, they have started to implement the use of drones to help them in their rescues."It has about 45 minutes of flight time, but you have to take into account making sure you fly it back to where it started," Mykle Raymond says. Raymond is one of the drone pilots working with SARA."I can tell th…

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