OS drones to aid Lowland Rescue in major searches for missing people
Press Office
Many times in Britain throughout the year, a pager on phones belonging to volunteers of Lowland Rescue will go off, requesting help to find a missing person.
The call comes from police, who send through the missing person’s details and ask for rescuers to arrive at a rendezvous point to begin the search.
Supporting the assembling foot patrols, dog teams, or swift water responses are a vital chain in the operation – Lowland Rescue’s drone operators.
Their role providing situational awareness and capturing imagery from the sky is critical. They can be deployed to search areas such as large open spaces with long grass allowing foot teams to concentrate their resources into dense forests and woodlands. They can also fly drones out across water or a quarry where it’s difficult or dangerous for rescuers to reach by foot.
But one area where Lowland Rescue drone operations are advancing is through post-flight image analysis. The technology helps pilots check through all the captured imagery, giving search teams confidence that the areas they have been looking at are clear and the missing person is not there.
Helping vulnerable people
Emily Butt, Drone Lead for Leicestershire Search and Rescue, and Head of Drones for Lowland Rescue nationally, explained the drones were used most often to search around lowland areas for high-risk vulnerable people.
"For a lot of our missing people, they might not even know that they're missing. We search for people living with dementia, as well as people with mental health challenges, and people who are suicidal as well. Unfortunately, we do find deceased individuals too, just because of the nature of the people that we're searching for. But it does bring closure to the family. We have been in some high-profile searches in the last couple of years, which have been very sad. So, being able to give the family the reassurance there's people out there looking for their loved one is a positive."
Scientific process
Lowland Rescue follow a statistical process when embarking on a search. Emily described it as like a “bicycle wheel with spokes and reflectors on it." The centre of the wheel is the place the missing person was last seen. The reflectors are places they are likely to be most attracted to. And the spokes are the quickest way the missing person can reach the place they are most likely to be.
“We’ll prioritise certain search areas according to a statistical manual,” she said.
“It basically says where each case is most likely to be. Someone with dementia will behave very differently to someone who’s suicidal, and they will behave very differently to a child with autism.
“It means we have a very good idea of where we need to go before we start searching.”
OS donates drones
To assist Lowland Rescue, Ordnance Survey (OS) has donated four Phantom 4 RTK units to the organisation. Each unit comes with five batteries and supporting kit that will enable mapping and post-flight analysis to take place. The drones will also be used to train Lowland Rescue drone operators in future.
OS Production Consultant James Morrison said: “The Phantom 4 drones we’re donating are fantastic. Previously we used them to capture imagery for our mapping operations. Using them meant our topographic data could be plotted using remote sensing methods. We are delighted to be able to give these platforms to such a worthwhile cause. Seeing something that would otherwise have been dismantled being re-used by Lowland Rescue, for their searches for high-risk vulnerable people, is fantastic.”
The donation was arranged by Graham Deng, who runs drone pilot trade body Unmanned Support. Graham said: “The UAV community is a close-knit one, so to be involved in recycling high quality drones from OS and handing them over for Lowland Rescue pilots to use feels like a real win for all parties involved.”
Emily said out of 34 Lowland Rescue teams, 20 of them operate drones. The donation from OS would be a significant help.
She added: “To be able to take a series of photographs and then run them through software that spots anomalies enables us to check that we’ve not missed anything.
“Drone pilots need to be confident they’ve covered a search area rather than relying on the eyes of the drone pilot alone.
“It’s so important for us. It’s much harder to search for a missing person than people might think.”
If you would like to find out more about Lowland, visit Leicestershire Search and Rescue and Lowland Rescue or to donate visit leicestershire-sar.org.uk/donate/
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