California diver finds GoPro that was lost at sea a year ago

John La Grange was diving off of Solana Beach in California on the 30th October when he noticed something on a little sand crevice lodged between two rocks. It was a small drone that carried a GoPro camera.

With help from his son Patrick, La Grange was able to capture the drone’s video of the fateful flight. According to the last time stamp the drone took off on November 2, 2013, from a vacant lot on the ocean-top bluff on Border Avenue.

The drone went out over the ocean, then slowly lost power, and descended into the water. The video kept running as the camera sunk, picking up the dying battery warning beep, but also capturing swaying kelp and a few fish swimming by.

Still photos on the camera show an image of who La Grange believes was the drone’s pilot, along with the front of a house in Solana Beach. On the 4th November, La Grange believes he found that house, and left a note on the front door, hoping to reunite the camera with its owner.

“I found the camera only a few hundred feet from where the video shows it went into the water,” says La Grange. The drone was side down in the sand, due to the weight of the motors being on top of the unit. “It’s amazing it survived,” added La Grange.

Earlier models of the hobbyist drones, such as the one La Grange found, would simply fall slowly back to the ground when the batteries went low. Newer versions now use GPS guidance to return the devices to the place of origin, even if the controller is unable to maneuver due to weather, dying batteries, or loss of transmission range.

The La Granges posted the camera’s video on YouTube. La Grange asks for anyone recognizing the pilot to contact him, which you can do through the Solana Beach lifeguard station.

Source: www.sandiegoreader.com