Drone saves boy from drowning, video goes viral

The video of a lifeguard drone saving a teenager from drowning in Valencia is going viral on social media.

The viral video saw the boy struggling and grabbing the life vest thrown by the lifeguard drone – operated by Miguel Angel Pedrero – just when he was about to go under the water at a beach. He wore it before being rescued by the coast guards.

A lifeguard drone saved the life of a 14-year-old boy who was struggling against the tide off a beach in Valencia, Spain. The drone dropped a life vest to the boy to keep him floating while the baywatch boat arrived. @generaldrones #drone #lifeguard #Spain #Valencia pic.twitter.com/UH7IxYuDAT

— Our World (@OurWorl91027476) July 25, 2022

Miguel Angel Pedrero, in an interview with foreign news agency Reuters, said he attached the gear on the drone after he saw the teenager in a predicament.

“When we arrived what we saw was a kid that was in very bad shape, with almost no energy to keep floating, so I sent over the life vest,” he was quoted saying.

He added: “Because of the heavy waves it was a complicated manoeuvre, but we finally managed to give him the vest and he could float until the lifeguards reached him by jet ski.”

The boy was treated at a local hospital and discharged after 24 hours.

Earlier, a pair of Australian swimmers became the first people to be rescued in the ocean by a drone when the aerial lifesaver dropped a safety device on distressed teens caught in rough seas in 2018.

In what was believed to be a world-first drone surf rescue, two boys got caught in three-metre (10-foot) swells while swimming off Lennox Head in New South Wales, near the border with Queensland.

Beachgoers onshore raised the alarm to the lifeguards who then alerted the drone pilot, and the aerial lifesaver was deployed in moments.

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

Other than a little weary from their experience the pair were reportedly unharmed.