On July 3, in a remarkable bit of quick thinking, a Vietnamese farmer used his drone — usually used to spread fertilizer — to save two children from a flooded river.
Tran Van Nghia was working his land in Gia Lai, in Vietnam’s central highlands, when he heard a cry for help from the nearby Ba River. Speaking to local news organization Tuoi Tre Online, Tran explained that some children had been herding cows across the river when a sudden surge of water — likely from monsoon rains upstream — trapped them off on a fast-submerging island in the middle of the river.
Locals tried to swim to the children, but the current was too strong, and instead, people rushed off to find a canoe. But with the water rising quickly, Tran felt forced to act. He attached a rope to his drone and proceeded to airlift two of the three children from the fast-disappearing island. The third child was then rescued by canoe soon after.
You can see two videos of the rescue below: