By KBC Associate :max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(956x577:958x579)/Shark-fisherman-Andrew-Smith-052025-c6259c7a5f3a4436b77e16d5fac04fb3.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "Shark Fisherman Uses Drone to Rescue Teen Girl Caught in Florida Rip Current")
NEED TO KNOW
- Florida shark fisherman Andrew Smith spontaneously decided to go fishing at Pensacola Beach on Thursday, May 15
- Shortly after he arrived, a teen girl was swept into a dangerous rip current
- Smith used his drone to drop a flotation device to the girl and keep her safe until first responders arrived
A Florida shark fisherman saved a teenage girl with his drone on Thursday, May 15, in Pensacola Beach, Fla., according to WSVN 7, Good Morning America and CBS News Miami.
Andrew Smith’s friends convinced him to go fishing at Pensacola Beach on Thursday, May 15. Then, around 7 p.m. local time, approximately 10 minutes after his arrival, he was approached by a girl asking if anyone could swim.
“I said, ‘No, I absolutely could not swim,’ ” he told CBS News Miami. “And she was running and screaming and nobody could swim. Her friend was getting 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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Smth maneuvered his drone above the rip currents and against the strong winds with a flotation device in tow. “I flew [the flotation device] out and it was a terrible miss. I released it too early, it was really windy. Like 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 was able to fly much closer to her.
“I flew it back out and after the first one I could tell how windy it was,” Smith explained. “So then I lowered it down, you had to go slower and slower down to her because that was it. That was the last opportunity we were going to have.”
Five minutes later, and 10 minutes after the girl was stuck in the current, first responders made it to the scene and saved her.
“If it wasn’t for that second drop, she wouldn’t of made it. The EMS said she wouldn’t of made it, the cops and the lifeguards,” Smith said. He added that if the girls were further down the beach and by the drones’ “No Fly Zone,” he wouldn’t have been able to save her.
The girl’s father thanked Smith for saving her, and referred to Smith as a guardian angel. “It was pretty crazy,” Smith said.
The girl, whose identity has not been made public, was examined and sent home healthy.