Isnt this more because the water from the helicopters could knock down the drones? IMO they should just knock them out, putting out the wild fires is more important. I think drones from day one would help with the recovery JMO
They aren't going to find this kid with drones or helicopters. They are going to find him with people walking through the trees and the brush calling his name, stopping to listen..........walking forward a few hundred yards, and then doing it again.
The pine trees are over 100 feet tall, couple that with the undergrowth below them, and from the air it just looks like a big green lush carpet below you. I have no doubt they have flown directly over Jerold. I have no doubt that Jerold has looked directly up at them. I have NO doubt that they simply didn't see him, while he was mixed in with all the vegetation.
The FLIR capabilities, while cool to talk about, only work when a human body is warmer than the area surrounding it.
This is Arizona, it's hot. There are tons of rocks on the ground that gather heat during the day. They will retain that temperature until late into the night and the wee hours of the morning. The human body has a temperature of 98.6 degrees. The rocks in the search zone have a temperature starting out at 100 degrees and decreasing to 70 or 80 by the morning hours. Even the exposed tree trunks will retain heat all night long. The FLIR will only work if there is a distinct difference between the heat of a human body and the surrounding inanimate objects. If this was winter time, they would have found him 2 days ago, but this isn't winter time, it's the hottest part of the year. Everything in the forest gathers heat and retains it. To further complicate things, the FLIR only works within the area directly below the chopper, or whatever the hell they aim it at.
This kid is 5 years old, he has neither the training or the mental capacity to try and flag down the helicopters, and even if he did, I highly doubt they would see him. Hell, people build signal fires and spell H-E-L-P out of logs sometimes and the searchers don't even see it the first time through. This kid is just looking up at them, looking down at him, and if he is waving it's all just lost in the vibration and the shutter involved while flying a helicopter.
In order to find this kid, they need boots on the ground......a lot of them. They need to cut down on the noise to the greatest extent possible (such as ATV's). Even with an ATV you can shut it off and yell.....listen....listen.....then fire it up and continue. Every searcher out there should be blowing whistles sporadically as they make their way through the forest in an attempt to guide him to them.
If enough people are out there in all different directions, Jerold is going to find SOMEBODY eventually.
The way this is going, I halfway expect him to walk into the Grand Canyon Visitor center tomorrow, ask for a coke and a doughnut, and then apologize to the waitress because he doesn't have enough money to pay for it.
We can only hope.
