Image: Lloyd Field via YouTube
Not every interaction between strangers on the internet is terrible. Sometimes things turn out OK.When Lloyd Field lost his drone in the water off the coast of Vancouver, Canada, he thought it was gone forever. After trying to recover the drone himself, he went to the internet for help and found a freediver on YouTube who lived in his area. A quick exchange of messages later and the stranger swam into the water and, against the odds, recovered Fieldâs drone.Field is a drone enthusiast and the machine he lost was a small DJI Mini 2. It weighs less than a pound and was a Christmas gift from his children. He lives in Vancouver near the Tsawwassen Delta. On January 15, after he finished work, he took his family to the beach and decided to christen the new drone.Field had been flying the drone less than half an hour when it went into the delta. âIt was completely my fault,â Field told Motherboard over the phone. âI saw something in the water that looked like a seal so I did a low fly to try and see what it was. When I realized it wasnât a seal, I pushed down on the joystick instead of on my camera and I put the drone in the water.âHis kids didnât witness the drone crash, but quickly learned it had happened. âThey were playing on the beach up-a-ways and then they heard my audible scream and came running over to me very sad,â Field said.The crash happened about 500 feet out from shore in water five feet deep. Recovering it wouldnât be impossible, but it would be difficult. The next day, Field rounded up a friend and his brother to see if he could find the drone. âI was in an inflatable rubber dinghy, it kept losing air. It was terrible,â Field said. âAnd I had one oar with a giant fishing magnet on it, but we werenât anywhere even close to where it was.âDefeated, Field went home. âI was bumming really hard,â he said. The next morning, Fieldâs fiancĂ© said it was too bad they couldnât find a scuba diver to go look for it. That gave Field an idea. âI jumped onto YouTubeâŠ.and I came across a guy with a channel PNW Samson. I left a comment on the guys video, just really grasping at straws and he got back to me right away. Within two hours, he and his buddy were out there and they found it. It was awesome.âSamson has been running his YouTube channel for a little more than a year. His videos are extremely chill free diving sessions where he and his friends explore the water and often encounter strange animals. He was already at the beach when he saw Fieldâs message. âIt was clear,â he told Motherboard on the phone. âReally clear and calm. I was looking out at the water kind of wishing I could dive. Then he messaged me, and asked me if I could go look for his drone. And it was the exact location I was already looking at...I asked my wife and she thought it was for a pretty good cause as well so she gave me the approval and I grabbed my gear and drove down there.âSamson didnât have high hopes for finding the drone. At this point, it had been in the water for about 48 hours. The visibility in the delta is often bad and the tide tends to pull lighter objects, like a small drone, out into the ocean. But Samson was lucky and, with the help of a friend, he recovered Fieldâs drone in half an hour.Samson filmed the recovery and uploaded it to his YouTube channel. âWhen you see the guyâs face itâs priceless,â he said. âEvery time I watch the video, I smile seeing how happy and stoked he was. He has a bunch of drones, but this one was sentimental to him because his children got it for him for Christmas.âThe salt water in the delta wrecked the Mini 2. Even its SD card was ruined, but Field is still happy. Heâs got a warranty on it, and DJI will replace it for free. He plans to use the drone when he volunteers for Wings of Mercy, a group that uses drones to help find missing people in wooded areas. âHe was a stand up guy,â Field said of Samson. âEspecially for someone who just met me off YouTube. Iâm still shaking my head that this harebrained scheme came together.ââItâs nice,â Field said. âIn the 90s, you never thought it would be possible that youâd be calling somebody on YouTube to help you find your missing helicopter. Itâs unreal.â
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