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6/20/2016 7:03 am  #1


Europe’s Emergency Workers Turn to Drones to Save Lives



Europe’s Emergency Workers Turn to Drones to Save Lives

COPENHAGEN — In a deserted grassy field on the outskirts of the Danish capital, Steve McLinden was struggling to land his drone as it teetered 200 feet above and barely in sight, battling winds of almost 10 miles an hour.

Mr. McLinden, a 45-year-old Briton, grimaced, concentrating on a tablet screen connected to his drone handset and monitoring the aircraft’s progress through its onboard camera. As the device pitched violently during its descent, Mr. McLinden expertly flicked at his controls to make last-second adjustments before landing the drone almost perfectly on the bull’s-eye of a bright red mat placed on the far side of the field.

“It just takes a little bit of practice,” Mr. McLinden, a firefighter, joked.

Mr. McLinden is a member of a group of middle-aged emergency workers taking part in a trial to jump-start the use of unmanned aircraft by Europe’s emergency services. The goal is to give the region a head start over the United States and elsewhere in using drones to tackle real-world emergencies.

The “drone school” builds on Europe’s worldwide lead in giving public groups and companies relatively free rein to experiment with unmanned aircraft. If everything goes as planned, the project’s backers hope government agencies in Europe and farther afield can piggyback on the experiences, helping to transform drones from recreational toys to lifesaving tools.

“For us, this technology is a game-changer,” said Mr. McLinden, who traveled to Copenhagen for a three-day training course with two colleagues from the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service. They will start offering 24/7 drone support — allowing colleagues, for example, to monitor accidents from 300 feet above — across central Wales later this month.

“Drones aren’t going to replace what we do,” Mr. McLinden added. “But anything that we can do to give our crews an advantage, that’s great.”

The three days of training in Copenhagen were the beginning of a six-month trial, the world’s largest and most widespread experiment with unmanned aircraft to potentially save lives. Four teams from Britain, Denmark, Iceland and Ireland are taking part in the program, organized by the European Emergency Number Association, a nonprofit trade body, and supported by DJI, the Chinese drone maker.

Each group will use two drones costing up to $5,000, some with thermal imaging cameras, and share their experiences as they use the machines when responding to emergency calls.

In a somewhat stuffy classroom at a disused fire station in Copenhagen, Thomas Sylvest gave advice to Mr. McLinden and others from his two years of flying. As Denmark’s first, and so far only, emergency service drone pilot, Mr. Sylvest has responded to things as varied as missing person cases and fires, often receiving calls late at night.

Mr. Sylvest, a fast-talking 50-year-old, offered tips on how best to share videos streamed directly from drones to commanders on the ground. During a recent fire in downtown Copenhagen, Mr. Sylvest said, he was able to beam high-definition images from high above, allowing his bosses to judge if a building’s walls would collapse (they did not). And when the police called him out last year after a man was reported missing, he flew his drone along a stretch of train tracks to guide colleagues on where best to look. (The man was found.)

“We are just firefighters,” he said as he nursed a cup of coffee during the first day of training. “We have to be able to use drones in very simple ways.”

The drone boot camp contrasts sharply with the experience of emergency workers in the United States, where it has been harder to use drones for such purposes.

In recent years, both parts of the world have set up rules to regulate drone use. European agencies, analysts say, have often been quicker to give licenses for public or commercial purposes, mostly because officials, more inclined toward regulation than in the United States, have been eager to control the use of the new technology.

The process to be licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency in charge of national drone rules in the United States, is more protracted, though the agency is the first to require registration of devices used by the general public.

“Europeans started giving out commercial licenses years ago,” said Hendrik Bödecker, co-founder of the analytics company Drone Industry Insights in Hamburg. “They just have more experience.”

All of the team members gathered in Copenhagen had used drones before. But on the windswept field outside the city, each group still took turns running through preflight checks, ensuring that the onboard camera and battery were working properly, and practicing maneuvers like night flying and landing aircraft from afar that would form part of their daily routine. Over coffee and cake, the teams also showed off their custom drone modifications, including harnesses that allowed multiple cameras to be attached to each drone.

“You have to practice everything, even flying in a straight line,” said Olafur Jon Jonsson, a burly, 50-year-old Icelandic search and rescue volunteer, as his drone whirred to life and took off across the field. “Flying drones isn’t easy.”

But if Europe’s drone school is to be successful, the experiment must overcome some major challenges.

Most unmanned aircraft cannot fly in bad weather, have limited battery life and struggle to connect to emergency services’ information technology systems. Drones, the teams said, also have been met with skepticism by higher-ups who have never used the devices.

Matthew Kelly, 44, a search and rescue volunteer in Donegal, a pristine but harsh wilderness in northwest Ireland, complained that he often had to bring his drone back after less than 15 minutes because of its limited battery life.

But as technological hurdles are overcome and, more important, drones start saving lives, Mr. Kelly said, unmanned aircraft could become as regular a fixture on his missions as Cody, his team’s search dog.

“What I’m looking forward to is our first actual rescue,” he said, in his softly spoken Irish accent. “I can’t wait to see what people’s reaction will be.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/technology/europe-emergency-drones.html?hpw&rref=technology&WT.nav=bottom-well&module=Slide&region=SlideShowTopBar&version=SlideCard-3&action=Click&contentCollection=Technology&slideshowTitle=Learning%20to%20Fly%20Drones%20to%20Help%20in%20Emergencies&currentSlide=3&entrySlide=1&pgtype=imageslideshow


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
 

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