Girls Missed the Bus - Helped by Hams
/Situational awareness is always key for hams doing emergency communications - and it was never more important than at a recent religious pilgrimage in India, where one observant radio amateur intervened to help find two missing children. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF brings us that story.
Hams around the world who were making DX contacts with AU2WBRC, the West Bengal Radio Club, were no doubt happy to log a QSO from the second largest religious gathering of Hindus in India, the Gangasagar Mela in West Bengal. They may not have realised that one member of the team made another important contact - off the air - with the cooperation of a drone operator in the area. A 9-year-old girl and her 3-year-old sister had boarded a departing bus, expecting their mother and grandmother to follow, but the adults failed to join them because the massive crowd at the bus stand had got in their way. The bus pulled away with the unaccompanied children.
“...key in completing the search operation in such a short time.”
Saborni Nag Biswas, VU2JFC, was at the festival to assist with the radio club's DXpedition and public safety work. She told Newsline she was near the bus stand, assisting others who had lost their way in the crowd, when the frantic mother approached her after the bus pulled away. The mother could not recall the bus' identifying number. Knowing that there were drones flying over the island for security purposes, Saborni telephoned the drone operators to see if any footage captured from the air could identify the departed vehicle. After the bus was identified, located and stopped, she accompanied Kolkata police to the bus and the girls were returned to their mother and grandmother.
