Dramatic footage has captured the heroic moment a Florida fisherman used a drone to rescue a young girl caught in a powerful rip current off Fort Pickens Beach, near Pensacola.
Andrew Smith, a local fisherman, was flying his SwellPro Fisherman Max drone to scout for sharks when he spotted the unidentified girl struggling far offshore, screaming for help.
“There was this girl screaming: ‘Can anybody swim?’” Smith recalled to Fox 4 Now.
“I can’t swim myself, but I had to do something.”
With no lifeguards on duty and strong red-flag surf conditions warning swimmers to stay out of the water, Smith acted fast — deploying his drone in a way it was never meant to be used.
📹 Rescue Captured on Video by Fellow Beachgoer
As panic grew on the beach, Smith noticed unattended life preservers nearby. Using his drone’s cargo-release mechanism, he grabbed a life preserver and flew it over the water toward the girl.
