Drone pilot locates vulnerable woman

A police drone pilot helped to locate a vulnerable missing woman in a dark field.

Concerns were raised for the woman’s welfare shortly after 11pm on Wednesday and multiple officers were detached to find her.

Believing she was lost on farmland near Balderton, Newark, the officers called in a police drone to help with the search.

The drone’s pilot was then able to use a thermal imaging camera to find the woman and direct officers on the ground to her location.

She was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act but was otherwise unharmed.

Sergeant Vince Saunders, chief drone pilot at Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“This was an ideal job for a police drone, which able to search a very large are in a matter of minutes.

“When looking for vulnerable and missing people we usually have a rough idea of where they may be, so we lift the drone and begin to rule out large swathes of open ground.

“In this case our pilot was soon able to detect a heat source and direct offices on the ground to where they needed to be.

“Without that capability this woman could may not have been located and could have come to serious harm.”