Delaware County receives unmanned submarine for rescue and recovery missions

DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. – Delaware County just got some really cool new technology – an unmanned submarine for rescue and recovery missions and it’s all for the City of Chester.

Tuesday afternoon was one of many plunges the Videoray Defender will take in Pennsylvania waterways.

It’s an unmanned submarine, that once deployed, can be operated from a distance using sonar, a camera, controlled arms and lights to scan the water for drowning victims or items needed as part of an investigation.

“This drone can go in and search for the objects by not putting the divers in any danger. Second thing is that, the drone can sit underwater for how many hours we need to locate whatever we would need to locate,” says John-Paul Shirley, the Fire Commissioner at Chester Fire Bureau.

Tuesday, the drones task is helping Shirley’s team find some milk cartons in Springton Reservoir, in Delaware County.

“They don’t take the place of dive teams, but I tell people it makes a fantastic supplement to your team,” says David Phillips, an Independent Consultant for Videoray LLC.

Phillips job is to help teach the Chester Police and Fire Dive Rescue and Recovery Team how to use the drone. That way when it comes time for a real life scenario, they’ll be ready.

“Before you send down a diver you can actually locate them with this and then send the diver down. That limits their bottom time and increase team safety,” says Phillips.

Rescue officials say the device will be very beneficial and they say, in the past, there were many situations where it could have been used.

“There’s been plenty of times where we have either had to look for a drowning victim or some piece of evidence that was thrown into the water and our divers spent hours locating something very, very small,” says Shirley.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had events of a sight drowning and we knew pretty much right where they were, but the dive team went in and faced currents or conditions. It delayed the response,” says Timothy Boyce, the Director of Emergency Services for Delaware County.

Even though the device was bought with a nearly $300,000 grant to the Chester City Police Department, it will be beneficial to Delaware County personnel as well, to ensure they have the best tools during their missions.

“A quicker response on recoveries, unfortunately it’s about bringing respect to the families, so this will allow us to be real time, but also be more respectful,” says Boyce.

Once the team completes their week-long training they’ll be ready to deploy the device whenever they need it.