South of Gold Coast two teenage boys first rescued with surf lifesaving drone

TWO teenagers have become the first swimmers to be successfully rescued by a drone. The boys got into trouble on the Northern NSW coast this morning.

TWO teenagers have become the first swimmers to be successfully rescued by a drone.

The world-first drone rescue happened in rough surf off Lennox Head this morning.

About 10.30am Queensland time two teenage boys were noticed being sucked out to sea in strong rips.

The Westpac Little Ripper drone drops an inflatable rescue device to the surfers

The pair were out the back of 3m swells, which could not be easily accessed by boat.

The Westpac Little Ripper drone was quickly deployed, it dropped an inflatable rescue device to the two boys, who were able to use it to get back to shore.

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Westpac Little Ripper drone remote pilots, Toni Hurkett (18) and Michael Lawton (51) with the latest state of art technology used to save lives on Australian beaches. Pic: Lindsay Moller

Little Ripper Group chief operations officer Ben Trollope said two teenage girls who were on the beach raised the alarm before lifesavers kicked into gear.

“They made the phone call to Surf Comm who radioed our guys and it was just a co-ordinated effort after that,” he said.

The device inflates.

“A flotation device was dropped and it inflated within a few seconds, they grabbed it and the waves pushed them in on it.”

Lifeguards had been preparing for a training session with the drone when they got the call to help the two teens.

Monty Greenslade, 17 and Gabe Vidler, 17, were fortunately unharmed from their ordeal, apart from showing signs of fatigue.

Lifeguard Supervisor Jai Sheridan, the 2017 NSW Lifeguard of the Year, was piloting the UAV at the time, immediately responded and was able to locate the swimmers within minutes of the initial alert.

The surfers use the device to get back to shore as the drone watches on.

“The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today it is an amazingly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment and a delight to fly,” Jai said.

“I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes. On a normal day that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public.”

The Litter Ripper drone has been patrolling beaches across NSW coastlines for the past year.

Meanwhile two swimmers were resuced from rough surf at Dreamtime Beach at Fingal Head.

NSW Ambulance were called to the beach about 1.45pm, on arrival emergency services discovered two patients, one 22-year-old male and one female, unknown age.

Both were transported to hospital for treatment, they are believed to be in a stable condition.

More to come.