VIDEO: A new device for the Crescent Township Fire Department will help to search and rescue as well as search and recovery efforts go quicker. It’s a drone for underwater.
The fire department will be one of the first in our area to have a remote operating vehicle like this for the water.
“Just about anything underwater and you want to see if you can find it,” Crescent Township Volunteer Fire Department President John Kriger said.
Before they would have to use sonar on boats and send in divers to check it out. Divers can only last about 20 or so minutes depending on the conditions.
“We can be in the cold water with this and then when we find our object, we can send our diver down. It limits his time in the cold water,” Kriger said.
The drone can last up to 3 hours in the water, and pinpoint where the divers need to go. This makes it so divers have to spend less time in the water. It has sonar, a camera, a claw, and is controlled by what almost looks like a video game controller on a boat.