A new colleague was Iowa's first responders sight when searching for missing boaters Wednesday night.
On the East Fork of the Des Moines River, a 20-person team was searching for a grandfather and granddaughter who were stranded in a logjam . David Penton, emergency management coordinator for Kossuth County, could faintly hear the cries of the missing persons, but the setting sun was making it more difficult to see them amid the thickly wooded riverbank.
So Penton called a colleague and had him rush to the scene with a drone.
Within three minutes of takeoff, they'd found the duo by watching the live stream from the DJI Phantom's camera. The drone then hovered overhead so that the first responders could use its location to guide them to the grandfather and granddaughter.
According to Penton, he said he expected the victims would have been found without the drone, but using it allowed them to find them faster. Once discovered, the man fell to his knees as he was suffering from a heart attack.
"Without the help of that drone, time could've been an issue for him," Penton said.
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