Authorities credit an amateur drone operator in Utah with helping responders locate and rescue a family of seven after their motorboat sank in Lake Utah on Aug. 3.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office said Stefan Ceciu agreed to help law enforcement by using his DJI Avata 2 drone to pinpoint the exact location of the unidentified family, who were about two miles from Lindon Marina.
“Stefan just happened to be there getting ready to launch his drone just for fun. He saw the [commotion] and asked the officer if he could launch the drone,” Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon told The Epoch Times.
Cannon said the family of three adults, two teens, and two toddlers, ages 2 and 3, all were wearing life jackets when the motorboat began taking on water.
The family bailed as fast as they could, but the water kept pouring in.
Cannon said the family was reported in the water between Lindon Marina and Saratoga Springs by an alert bystander, who dialed 911 at about 11 a.m.
A Lindon police officer was standing on the jetty at the marina as Ceciu was getting ready to fly his drone. After Ceciu learned about the situation, he agreed to use the drone to help locate the family, which he was able to do within minutes—just as more emergency personnel began to arrive.
GPS information from a photo helped to pinpoint the family’s exact location, Cannon said.
The drone’s auto-return function tells it to return to its point of origin when the battery runs low. However, Ceciu overrode this feature until he could locate the family, even though he knew it could put his drone at risk.
The drone’s battery was down to 20 percent when it dipped into the water and lost all power.
The Search and Rescue team from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office helped with the rescue. The Utah State Parks provided a boat, and a helicopter from the Utah Department of Public Safety was also involved.
Because the family was in trouble, other boaters quickly stepped up to help. The rescue operation would have taken an hour or longer without Ceciu’s assistance, Cannon said.
Even in warm weather, the family could have had issues with hypothermia in the 81 degree water, he said.
Life jackets were the most critical factor, Cannon said. Without them, the incident could have had a different outcome.
Utah Lake is the state’s second-largest freshwater lake and measures 148 square miles. The lake is prone to abrupt weather changes, turbulent water, and formidable waves during storms, Cannon said.
He said that when storms come up, they can become dangerous quickly.
“You can have six- and even eight-foot waves 20 feet apart, which gives you almost no maneuvering room between waves. You never know when someone is in the water; they could get scared or forget their life jacket. They might take a lot of water in their lungs. Many things can happen,” Cannon said.
“There were a lot of moving parts in the right spots at the right time,” he said, but “no one was hurt.”
The Epoch Times has requested a comment from Ceciu.
Meanwhile, Ceciu’s wife, Katherine, has created a GoFundMe.com fundraising page with a target of $1,000 to replace the drone.
The drone was crucial in locating the family and directing the rescue squads, she wrote, adding that it was a miracle case of being in the right place at the right time.
As of Aug. 14, the fundraiser had 93 individual donations totaling $2,497.
The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation says drones have been an integral part of law enforcement since they were first introduced by the Chula Vista Police Department in California in 2018.
An estimated 1,500 police departments now have drone programs, but only a few dozen have a first responder drone program for emergencies.
Utah County’s Sheriff’s Office has a fleet of several drones and FAA-certified operations. However, at the time of the boating accident, the drones were miles away in storage at the department.
Cannon said Ceciu “went in there knowing there was a chance he would lose his drone—and he did.”
