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Need to know
- Florida Shark Fisherman Andrew Smith decided spontaneously to fish at Pensacola Beach on Thursday 15 May
- Shortly after he arrived, a teenage girl was swept into a dangerous Ripström
- Smith used her drone to release a flotation unit to the girl and keep her safe until the first responders arrived
A Florida shark fisherman saved a teenage girl with his Drone on Thursday, May 15 in Pensacola Beach, Florida, according to WSVN 7The Good morning America and CBS News Miami.
Andrew Smith’s friends convinced him to fish at Pensacola Beach on Thursday, May 15. Then, at about 19 local time, about 10 minutes after his arrival, he was contacted by a girl who asked if anyone could swim.
“I said,” No, I absolutely couldn’t swim, “he told CBS News Miami.” And she drove and screamed and no one could swim. Her friend was sucked more and more out, and I looked down at the drone and I was like: “Well, the drone can swim but I can’t.”
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Mix operated its drone over the rip streams and against the strong winds with a flotation device in trailer. “I flew (the flotation unit) and it was a terrible miss. I released it too soon, it was really windy. As if it wasn’t close at all,” he explained.
As the teenage girl continued to fight for her safety in the water, Smith found a second flotation device to send to her, which he could fly much closer to her.
“I flew it back and after the first I could say how windy it was,” Smith explained. “So then I lowered it down, you had to go slower and slower to her because it was. It was the last opportunity we would have.”
Five minutes later, and 10 minutes after the girl was stuck in the present, the first answers took the stage and saved her.
“If it wasn’t for the other drop, she wouldn’t. EMS said she wouldn’t, the police and lifeguards,” Smith said. He added that if the girls were further down the beach and by the “no flues zone” of the drones, he would not have been able to save her.
The girl’s father thanked Smith for saving her and referring to Smith as a guardian angel. “It was pretty crazy,” Smith said.
The girl, whose identity has not been published, was investigated and sent home well.
