Software engineer Garret Bryl decided to become a drone volunteer for the Joshua Fire Department in Texas after some encouragement from his wife. "My whole family has the philosophy of ‘if you have a talent or a gift, you should use that for good,'" he told Business Insider.
So he sat down with the fire department's chief, Wayne Baker, to see how he could help. Shortly after, he began scenario training. Bryl practiced flying his drone at the time, DJI's Phantom 3, with life vests attached to it to deliver to people in emergency situations.
One day in May, Fort Worth, Texas experienced terrible flooding. It was so bad that the mobile home of local residents Tracey and Bill Kastel was completely surrounded by water.
Thankfully, Bryl was already on scene. He had used DJI's Inspire 1 drone to spot a truck that had washed off the road during the flood. Search-and-rescue had spent one hour looking for the truck that the drone spotted in 45 seconds, he said. They were able to send a rescue boat to save the people as a result.
Bryl then moved on to the next crisis — saving the Kastel couple. He used his drone to deliver a safety line to the mobile home, the other end of which was attached to the fire truck.
Once the line stabilized the mobile home, a rescue worker was able to safely come down from a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter and assist the Kastel's. "To my knowledge that was the first time a [drone] had been used in an active rescue," Bryl said.
Bryl is one of several people who are volunteering to use their drones for search and rescue missions. SWARM is an organization that connects such volunteers with search-and-rescue groups who want to use a drone to locate a missing person.
Jessika Farrar, a network administrator for SWARM, has been volunteer for almost 2 years. In that time, the number of volunteers has stretched from a few hundred to 1,000, Farrar told Business Insider. Volunteers hail from as far as The Philippines and Malaysia.
Still, there's plenty of room for growth. "I still feel like drones being used in this capacity is in its infancy," Farrar said.
Using drones for search-and-rescue used to be difficult before the new regulations were put in place, Farrar said. One time, SWARM was asked to send someone with a drone to assist in a search-and-rescue at a national park. The volunteer was turned away when park officials refused to let a drone fly.
That's because those who wanted to use drones in emergency situations had to get a Certificate of Authorization (COA) approved by the FAA — a process that isn't exactly timely in a situation that requires immediate attention.
But the new drone regulations that went into effect Monday put guidelines in place that allow drones to be used for search-and-rescue without requesting special permission.
You can read more about the regulations here.
But there are still some barriers that exist. Drones still can't be flown above 400 feet from the operator or at night without special permission. Those hoping to operate outside those rules will need to apply for a waiver.
Still, the new drone regulations are a step in the right direction in making it easier to use drones in emergency situations.