Teen Flying Drone Finds Couple’s SUV Upside Down in a Flooding Sinkhole
The timing couldn’t have been better. A teen in Denver, Colorado, was flying one of his 13 drones when he saw something unusual on a road. Actually, it was an SUV in the road, in a seven-foot deep sinkhole, wheels up. The sinkhole began only minutes before, and a couple in their 60s was inside the Jeep, with the sinkhole rapidly filling with water.
The teen, Josh Logue, was flying the drone over the Denver-Hudson Canal. It was of particular interest because the heavy rains in the Denver area had turned the dry canal into barrelling river. On the road next to it, he stopped on a “dark spot” that looked unusual.
How did the couple survive inside the SUV underwater?
That’s when he saw four tires and the underside of a Jeep Grand Cherokee in a sinkhole. ‘They had six inches of room inside an air pocket for them to breathe, but the rest was water,’ Logue told Denver 7. The sinkhole is adjacent to a bridge, just a short distance from a section of the road that was closed due to flooding.
With no time to panic, Logue raced home, where the Assistant Chief of the Denver Fire Department just happened to be rummaging through the Logue’s garage sale items. He, Logue’s father, and Logue himself called emergency responders while speeding over to the upside-down SUV. Once at the scene, they heard the horn blaring, and most of the SUV inside the sinkhole was underwater.
Did first responder know there were people trapped in the sinkhole?
At first, none of the three knew people were inside the SUV. Then they heard them calling. The couple had survived inside an air pocket but were slowly running out of air. “I’ve been a Denver firefighter for 25 years,” Assistant Fire Chief Ryan Nuanes said to the Washington Post. “And it was the most dire situation that I had seen.” Both were calm and talked to the rescuers but said they were rapidly running out of air.
Did the couple in the SUV survive?
With firefighters now on the scene, they began cutting on the Jeep’s floor to rescue the couple. That, plus Logue having winched the Jeep to his pickup, helped in saving the two trapped inside. First responders took them to a nearby hospital.
Logue uses his drones to explore and take pictures. His aim is to become a professional drone pilot. With this story on his resume, we’re sure he’ll get that chance in the near future.
