Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The moment when the drone saves swimmers at Lennox Head

Two teenage boys were rescued by a brand new lifesaving drone in Australia while lifeguards were still training to use the device.

The swimmers, aged 15-17, had got into difficulties off the coast of Lennox Head, New South Wales (NSW).

A member of the public spotted them struggling in heavy surf about 700m (2,300ft) offshore.

Lifesavers instantly sent the drone to drop an inflatable rescue pod, and the pair made their way safely to shore.

John Barilaro, the state's deputy premier, praised the rescue as historic. "Never before has a drone fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this," he said.

Lifeguard supervisor Jai Sheridan was piloting the device when the alarm was raised. He described the experience as "unreal".

"The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today, it is an amazingly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment and a delight to fly," he told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

Image caption New South Wales has invested in drones to help spot sharks and rescue swimmers or surfers in trouble (file picture)

Image copyright NSW government Image caption After grabbing the rescue pod the boys were able to swim back to shore - exhausted but otherwise unharmed.

Mr Sheridan said it took just a minute or two to launch the drone, fly it to the rescue site, and drop the pod.

Any other day, reaching the teenagers could easily have taken three times as long.

The drone's camera also recorded the whole rescue.

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The NSW state government revealed in December that it had invested A$430,000 ($340,000 / £247,000) in a fleet of drones. While some are designed to spot sharks, others feature flotation pods, alarms and loudspeakers.</s>LENNOX HEAD, Australia — Caught in rough surf far from shore, stranded swimmers might hope for a lifeguard to appear amid the waves.

But for two young swimmers recently rescued off the coast of Australia’s Lennox Head, New South Wales (NSW), a different kind of savior showed up: a drone.

In what’s being hailed as a first-of-its-kind rescue, the new lifesaving device – the Little Ripper UAV – flew into action after someone spotted the swimmers in distress in a nearly 10-foot swell more than a half mile off a patrolled area, Surf Life Saving NSW said in a news release.

Within minutes, lifeguards piloted the drone to the pair and dropped an inflatable life preserver.

The two clung to the rescue pod and made it to shore, where lifeguards were waiting, Surf Life Saving NSW said. They were exhausted but unharmed. And the drone had recorded the whole rescue.

“The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today. It is an amazingly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment and a delight to fly,” said Lifeguard Supervisor Jai Sheridan, who piloted the drone during the rescue.

“I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about 1 to 2 minutes,” he said. “On a normal day, that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach.”

The rescue, which happened as lifeguards from the Australian Lifeguard Service were preparing for a training session with the brand-new drone fleet, was lauded as groundbreaking.

“Never before has a drone fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this,” Deputy State Premier John Barilaro told the BBC.

The NSW government invested $430,000 in funding to Surf Life Saving NSW for the drone project, the organization said.</s>A drone rescued two swimmers off an Australian beach on Thursday, a world first for the fast-developing technology that seems perfectly suited to saving lives at sea, authorities said.

The rescue took place as life savers at Lennox Head, a beach popular with surfers south of the city of Brisbane, were preparing for a training session on using drones to pull swimmers to safety.

The practice turned into a real rescue when someone noticed that two men swimming outside safety flags were in trouble in a three-metre (10-foot) swell, the government said in a statement.

Lifeguards launched the drone, steered it towards the swimmers and dropped a "rescue pod" into the water, where it expanded so the swimmers could grab it and swim to shore.

"Never before has a drone fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this," said John Barilaro, the deputy premier of New South Wales state.

The rescue took just 70 seconds. The two swimmers were exhausted but unharmed.

Barilaro said the state government had invested A$430,000($343,000) in a trial of drone technology in December.

Australia, most of whose 24 million live on the coast, had 291 drownings in the year to June 30, a small increase over the previous year but a decline on a per capita basis, according to the Royal Life Saving Society.

Forty people have drowned in the 2017/18 summer, down from 69 at the same time last year, the group said.</s>A drone rescued two swimmers off an Australian beach on Thursday, a world first for the fast-developing technology that seems perfectly suited to saving lives at sea, authorities said.

The rescue took place as life savers at Lennox Head, a beach popular with surfers south of the city of Brisbane, were preparing for a training session on using drones to pull swimmers to safety.
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The practice turned into a real rescue when someone noticed that two men swimming outside safety flags were in trouble in a three-metre swell, the government said in a statement.

Lifeguards launched the drone, steered it toward the swimmers and dropped a "rescue pod" into the water, where it expanded so the swimmers could grab it and swim to shore.

"Never before has a drone fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this," said John Barilaro, the deputy premier of New South Wales state.

The rescue took just 70 seconds. The two swimmers were exhausted but unharmed.

Barilaro said the state government had invested about $427,000 Cdn in a trial of drone technology in December.

Australia, most of whose 24 million inhabitants live on the coast, had 291 drownings in the year to June 30, a small increase over the previous year but a decline on a per capita basis, according to the Royal Life Saving Society.</s>Two teenage boys were rescued by a brand new lifesaving drone in Australia while lifeguards were still training to use the device.

The swimmers, aged 15-17, had got into difficulties off the coast of Lennox Head, New South Wales (NSW).

A member of the public spotted them struggling in heavy surf about 700m (2,300ft) offshore.

Lifesavers instantly sent the drone to drop an inflatable rescue pod, and the pair made their way safely to shore.

John Barilaro, the state's deputy premier, praised the rescue as historic. "Never before has a drone fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this, he said.

Lifeguard supervisor Jai Sheridan was piloting the device when the alarm was raised. He described the experience as "unreal".

"The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today, it is an amazingly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment and a delight to fly," he told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

Mr Sheridan said it took just a minute or two to launch the drone, fly it to the rescue site, and drop the pod.

Any other day, reaching the teenagers could easily have taken three times as long.

The drone's camera also recorded the whole rescue.

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The NSW state government revealed in December that it had invested A$430,000 ($340,000 / £247,000) in a fleet of drones. While some are designed to spot sharks, others feature flotation pods, alarms and loudspeakers.</s>On Thursday morning, Jai Sheridan, a lifeguard supervisor who was operating the drone, was alerted to two young men caught in turbulent surf with 10-foot swells. Sheridan then steered the drone toward the swimmers.

In video of the incident taken from the drone, it can be seen releasing a yellow “rescue pod” that inflates in the water. The two swimmers grabbed the pod, and with its support they made their way to shore. They were fatigued, but not hurt, Surf Life Saving New South Wales, a volunteer organization, said in a statement.

The rescue took just 70 seconds. “On a normal day that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer,” Sheridan said.

The drone used for the rescue, known as a Little Ripper unmanned aerial vehicle, is also part of a shark-spotting program being rolled out across Australian beaches this summer. It uses an algorithm to automatically recognize sharks.

“The applications in the water are just phenomenal,” said Michael Blumenstein, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney who oversaw the team that developed the shark-spotting software. “The amount of payload that these drones carry enable them to be really be versatile.”

In cases involving rough surf, remote locations or natural disasters, where conditions may be hazardous and time is a factor, Blumenstein said, drones are able to help operators assess a situation without endangering human lives. Farmers have also found practical applications for drones, using them to efficiently assess the health of their crops, for example.

But in crowded urban areas, Blumenstein said, security concerns may still be an issue. “People are still, I think, wary of low-hanging hovering objects, and rightfully so,” he said.

In December, the state government of New South Wales announced that it would invest 430,000 Australian dollars ($345,000) into drone technology as part of a trial on the state’s North Coast.

John Barilaro, deputy premier of New South Wales, said after Thursday’s rescue that the investment had already paid off. “Never before has a drone, fitted with a flotation device, been used to rescue swimmers like this,” Barilaro said.

The software developed by Blumenstein’s team could soon become a vital tool for lifeguards.

“There’s no reason why we couldn’t use it to automatically detect people in the water,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.</s>A flying drone has dropped a flotation device to two teens caught in a riptide in heavy seas off the Australian coast in what officials describe as a world-first rescue. Monty Greenslade and Gabe Vidler got into trouble on Thursday at Lennox Head, 750 kilometers (470 miles) north of Sydney.

They were about a kilometer (0.6 mile) from lifeguards who were about to start training with the new drones, equipped with a camera, rescue gear and six rotors.

After a friend raised the alert, lifeguard Jai Sheridan said he piloted the drone to the swimmers and dropped a rescue pod minutes faster than lifeguards could have reached the pair by conventional means.

“I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes. On a normal day, that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public,” Sheridan said in a statement.

Greenslade, 16, said Friday the pair were lucky that the drone had been nearby.

“We realized pretty quickly that it was a rescue drone, once we heard it,” Greenslade told Nine Network television. “It was pretty noisy, so it was kind of hard to miss it, to be honest.”

“With the heavy waves, we were sort of going under and coming up for breath and … the drone dropped the package and we both grabbed on pretty quickly. It’s kind of obvious what you’re supposed to do with it,” he added.

Vidler, 17, told Nine: “It was pretty heavy out there and we were a little bit concerned.”

“It just dropped the life raft and so we just held on to that and just swam into shore,” Vidler said.

It was the first drone rescue since the New South Wales state government last month invested 430,000 Australian dollars ($345,000) in drone technology for rescue and shark spotting work in the state’s north.

“This is a world-first rescue,” state Deputy Premier John Barilaro said. “Never before has a drone, fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this.”

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>Lifeguards used a drone to rescue two teenagers from rough seas off the northern coast of New South Wales in Australia today (Jan. 18).

The lifeguards happened to be piloting the new technology when they received a distress signal and deployed a drone to search for the struggling swimmers. Footage relayed from the drone camera (which can be viewed here) caught two people in distress near Lennox Head in the northern coastline of the state. The video shows the drone releasing a flotation device, which the two teenagers swam toward and clung onto as they are pounded by waves. Ben Franklin, parliamentary secretary for Northern New South Wales, said the whole process only took 70 seconds, compared to the six minutes it usually takes a lifeguard to rescue swimmers.

Deputy premier and minister for regional New South Wales John Barilaro said it was the first time such technology had been used to save lives in the sea.

The New South Wales government invested A$430,000 ($340,000) last year in a fleet of drones to patrol for sharks in the northern beaches of the state. Some of those drones are fitted with artificial intelligence to detect sharks. Drones have also been patrolling for sharks on Australia’s west coast, including one incident (paywall) in December where lifeguards evacuated a beach in Perth after spotting a three-meter shark swimming near a surfer and a group of children.

Kevin Weldon, who founded the company that makes the Little Ripper drones, which were used in the rescue in Australia, was inspired after he saw an unmanned helicopter searching for survivors in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.</s>LENNOX HEAD, AUSTRALIA-- It's believed to be a first!

A drone helped rescue two teens from drowning off the Australian coast of New Wouth Wales Thursday.

According to CNN affiliate 7 Network, lifeguards caught the boys struggling and sent the drone, called the Little Ripper, to help them.

The drone flew over to the teens' location, where it dropped an expandable rescue pod.

The boys grabbed on to the device until they reached shore.

The New South Wales government says this is the world's first rescue by a drone equipped with a flotation device.</s>An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) nicknamed “Little Ripper” deployed an emergency flotation device to save two struggling swimmers Wednesday, in what local authorities are calling the first ever drone surf rescue.

When a beachgoer alerted lifeguards to swimmers apparently caught in heavy surf off Australia’s Far North Coast, they were fortuitously piloting a rescue drone as part of a new equipment trial, NPR reports.

Responding to the alert, lifeguard supervisor Jai Sheridan hovered the drone about 2,3000 feet above the two boys and dropped a self-inflating yellow pod for them to grasp onto. The drone’s on-board camera recorded the sequence: from location, to drop, to the swimmers’ grateful journey to the shore.

“I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes. On a normal day that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public,” Sheridan told Australia’s Sydney . “The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today.”

The swimmers, 15 and 17, reportedly reached the shore fatigued but unharmed.

“The New South Wales Government’s investment in this technology has already resulted in two people having their lives saved,” local politician John Barilaro told the . “Never before has a drone, fitted with a flotation device been used to rescue swimmers like this.”

See the rescue above.
In a world's first, a drone rescues two swimmers off the coast of Lennox Head, New South Wales in Australia by dropping a safety device to them. John Barilaro, the Deputy Premier of New South Wales, praises the rescue as historic.