May 10, 2018 1.20 pm This story is over 69 months old

Inside story of life-saving police drone

“A drone saved someone’s life that night”

Lincolnshire Police officers reflected on how a drone saved a man’s life when he was rescued from a freezing ditch earlier this year.

As previously reported, the 30-year-old male was discovered in a ditch 160 metres from his crashed car on the A16 near Ludborough in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, February 25.

The man had wandered away from his vehicle on the A16 into a ditch and was unresponsive and hypothermic when police arrived.

He was rushed to hospital before being later discharged with minor injuries.

Sgt Mike Templeman at Lincolnshire Police travelled a mile and a half and couldn’t locate the man so requested the use of a drone, which did a sweep from the crash site up to 500 metres away.

Special Sgt and chief pilot Kev Taylor, who was flying the drone, found a heat source using the thermal XT camera 12 minutes into his journey.

Sgt Taylor was then able to direct officers to where the man was then found.

A Lincolnshire Police drone. Photo: Screenshot from DJI’s YouTube video

Thermal imaging from the drone helped to locate an unconscious man. Photo: Screenshot from DJI’s YouTube video

Lincolnshire Police currently has two Inspire One drones predominately used for search and rescue operations as confirmed in a recent video published by DJI, who are a market leader in easy-to-fly drones.

Sgt Templeman said: “The use of the drones is just brilliant, it saved someone’s life that night I’ve got no doubt, so I would love to see drones rolled out, not just our force, but all forces across the UK.”