Search & Rescue

Missing hikers found, thermal cameras at night, drones over floodwater — SAR missions, documented.

327

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Reporters on beat

Sep 2

Last updated

Escaped black Angus bull moving through thick kudzu in Iredell County, North Carolina

DJI Avata 2

DJI Avata 2 Guides Escaped Angus Bull Out of I-40 Ravine

A DJI Avata 2 helped Foothills Aerial Services guide an escaped Angus bull out of a kudzu-covered ravine near Interstate 40 in Iredell County, North Carolina.

Rafael SuárezJul 30

Paws Patrol LV thermal drone donation for animal rescue searches in Las Vegas

Search & Rescue

Paws Patrol LV Gets Two Thermal Drones After Sky Knockdown

A Montana hotel owner donated two thermal drones to Paws Patrol LV after people in a Las Vegas wash knocked the animal rescue group's $7,000 drone out of the sky during a search for an injured dog. The dog remains missing.

Rafael SuárezJul 28

Ocean County Sheriff's Office drone delivering a flotation device to a swimmer off Surf City, New Jersey

Search & Rescue

Ocean County Drone Reaches Swimmer After Lifeguards Left

An Ocean County sheriff's drone dropped a Restube flotation device to a young swimmer caught in a rip current off Surf City after lifeguards had gone home for the day.

Rafael SuárezJul 25

Fire and Rescue NSW drone team uses AI-assisted search tools in Kosciuszko National Park

Search & Rescue

Fire and Rescue NSW AI Drone Finds Lost Hikers in 5 Hours

Two hikers who went missing off the Dead Horse Gap track in Kosciuszko National Park were located within five hours after Fire and Rescue NSW deployed a drone team using AI-assisted detection software. The rescue is the agency's first operational AI find, and it offers a rare look at how human pilots and low-threshold machine vision actually work together in the field.

Rafael SuárezJul 22

Cyborg cockroaches carrying electronic backpacks help rescue teams search collapsed buildings for earthquake survivors.

Search & Rescue

Cockroach Drones Are Searching Venezuela's Earthquake Rubble

Cyborg cockroaches fitted with electronic backpacks are now searching earthquake rubble in Venezuela, showing how biohybrid rescue tools have moved from lab experiments to real disaster response. The insects can crawl through voids that rescuers and wheeled robots cannot reach, carrying sensors that may help locate survivors.

Rafael SuárezJul 20

Ronald Statz, the 73-year-old man found alive in a Stearns County cornfield

Search & Rescue

St. Cloud Drone Finds Missing Man After Air Search Fails

A St. Cloud police drone found 73-year-old Ronald Statz alive in a Stearns County cornfield after a dozen agencies, including a State Patrol plane and a DNR helicopter, searched for hours.

Haye KestelooJul 13

DJI

DJI Teases New Enterprise Drone “For The Priceless Below,” And Everything Points At A Matrice 30 Successor

DJI will announce a new enterprise drone on July 8, 2026, at 8 AM EDT. The teaser, published by DJI Enterprise on July 2 under the tagline “For the Priceless Below,” shows a darkened silhouette of a quadcopter with extended landing gear, a gimbal payload slung under the body, and what appears to be a…

Haye KestelooJul 2

DJI Bolsters Drone Data Security with FlightHub 2 On-Premises and 2025 White Paper

DJI

DJI Matrice 4D Now Flies Compliant BVLOS Without a Dock, and Europe’s Operators Are the Winners

DJI has started publicly promoting a firmware change that lets its Matrice 4D Series fly compliant European beyond-visual-line-of-sight missions from a handheld controller instead of a fixed docking station. The company’s Enterprise arm laid out the details in a June 12 blog post and pushed it to a wider audience through an X thread on…

Haye KestelooJul 1

Search & Rescue

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