Menachem “Mark” Kahn was at home in Rockland County, N.Y., when he got an emergency call from across the country just before midnight on Wednesday. Three hours earlier, 8-year-old Tzion Maron, who was vacationing from Baltimore with his parents in Arizona’s Coconino National Forest, went missing after he became separated from his family during a hike at the Lava River Caves as a sudden downpour flooded the mile-long cave.
By 3 a.m., Kahn was on a private jet with some 20 members of Chaverim of Rockland, a volunteer emergency service. After an extensive search throughout the night — which included six drones commanded by Kahn — Maron was found Thursday morning asleep on the ground, with stable vitals.
“We [immediately] started mobilizing a plan with our search-and-rescue unit, which comprises of hikers, navigation, command and the sophisticated drone unit that uses drones with thermal cameras that can fly over fires and detect heat from a body,” Kahn told eJewishPhilanthropy in an exclusive interview as he was en route home following the rescue.
Kahn is the founder of the drone department at the rescue division of Chaverim of Rockland. “Incorporating drones into emergency response has been a game changer in expediting the searches, as well as ensuring safety of people on the ground,” he told eJP, noting that he has led drone rescues “in rain and wind, cold and heat.” The drone department has expanded to a team of 40 licensed pilots operating the drones, with “a few hundred thousands of dollars of drone equipment for different types of search-and-rescue conditions,” according to Kahn.
The drone division was so successful that it led Kahn to launch Drone 911 Corp, a company that together with DroneSense and Paladin, has brought drones to more than 200 police, fire and EMS agencies around the country. “It’s been a tremendous rush and an incredible opportunity to bring next-gen technology to emergency response,” he said. Due to requirements around government agencies’ purchase of the equipment and software, Drone 911 Corp does not do direct sales, but rather sells through its partners.
All of the methods used in Thursday’s drone search were created by Kahn, but he was adamant that he cannot take all of the credit for the intrepid rescue of Maron, which he called a “tremendous collaboration.”
The volunteers traveled through Hatzolah Air, an emergency medical air transport service. Also on site assisting were several other rescue groups, including Hatzolah of Los Angeles members and local Flagstaff law enforcement.
“This has just been a tremendous success,” Kahn said. “We’re thankful to Hashem for allowing us to be the messengers to bring this child back safely.”
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