Life-saving Technology to be Presented at Search-and-Rescue Summit
CENTUM announces it will present at the Airborne Public Safety Association Rescue Summit in Anaheim at the end of February. The conference, running in conjunction with HAI HELI-EXPO 2024, will focus on the vital role VTOL aircraft play in rescue operations, and CENTUM will show how Lifeseeker helps search-and-rescue professionals find missing people quickly and efficiently.
Héctor Estévez, CENTUM CEO, will demonstrate how Lifeseeker treats mobile phones as beacons, with no need for the phone to be connected to a network or for the owner to be able to use it. The phone simply needs to be turned on.
Estévez says, “Our mission is to save lives. Finding people is difficult, particularly in the dark and when they are injured. Our technology flies on helicopters and drones, and it can pinpoint someone’s phone to within one or two meters. It often means the difference between life and death.”
The technology is used by more than 35 SAR operators throughout North America, Europe and Asia, following extensive testing and authorizations. Users include the Royal Canadian Air Force, REGA, the Swiss Air Force, and the Vigili del Fuoco. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security recently selected Lifeseeker following a highly competitive bidding process.
Three recent rescues made using Lifeseeker stand out. In the first case, a 79-year-old woman had an accident in her car, falling down an embankment near Moutier in Switzerland and becoming trapped in her car. She ended up in the trees, with no sign of the accident on the road, making it almost impossible to track her whereabouts. Her mobile phone, however, was turned on, which Lifeseeker was able to track from the Rega helicopter. Rega immediately passed the information to the Bern cantonal police. The woman, who was slightly injured, was given medical treatment on the scene then taken to hospital, making a full recovery.
When a man failed to return home after a day’s mountain biking in Valais, his wife called the emergency services. He was found the next morning, thanks to Lifeseeker deployed on a Swiss Army Air Force Puma helicopter. He was also injured, unable to get himself home.
In Italy, on the coast south of Rome, a man was out collecting mushrooms when he slipped and lost his way. His daughter reported him as missing, and he was quickly located by Lifeseeker flying on a Lazio SAPR drone. The information was passed on to the firefighters, who found the man and returned him home safely.
Estévez says, “I hope he managed to take his mushrooms home, too! The serious point is that all three of these cases show how easy it is to get lost and how hard it is to find people. Anything we can do to help search-and-rescue teams must be good. And there is no question Lifeseeker made all the difference in these three incidents, meaning they were able to return to their homes and their families.”
The APSA 2024 Rescue Summit is Feb. 26. HAI HELI-EXPO 2024 is running Feb. 26-29. CENTUM is exhibiting at Booth #7125.