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Maine’s cool, gloomy weather may benefit search and rescue
You might think sunny days are ideal for finding missing people or pets, but in Maine, the cool and cloudy months can actually provide better conditions.
Rob Russell, founder of 2A TAC Drone Services, explains how thermal imaging works by saying, “White is the things that are hot, and gray is your medium, and black are the things that are cold.” Russell spends the year traveling across New England with a thermal drone, helping families locate missing pets and sometimes missing people. However, depending on the season, his job can become significantly more challenging.
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From Hobbyist to Full-Time Pilot: The Journey Behind 2ATAC Drone Services
Drones have proven immensely powerful in search and rescue (SAR) missions in many cases of missing persons, and now they have also become the unsung hero in recovering missing pets in the New England area. In a region dense with forest, missing pets often end up deep among the trees, an area where even those searching for them can easily lose their way.
Over the last few years, hundreds of missing dogs, cats, and horses have been located and rescued thanks to a thermal drone.
Commercial UAV News sat down with Rob Russell, Owner of 2ATAC Air OPS Drone Services, to learn about how he turned a few flights with a hobby drone into a full-time commercial business and rescuing several animals each week.
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New Hampshire man's business uses drone technology to find missing pets
Sometimes finding a missing pet comes down to using the right technology.
In March of 2025, a nightmare scenario played out for Sarah Porter and John Morgan, of Rochester.
The couple adopted a rescue boxer named Maggie May. The dog was skittish at first and wouldn’t eat much.
“She was rescued with several other dogs in Pennsylvania or Ohio,” Porter said. “We tried to get her a little settled, little relaxed. We didn’t expect anything out of her.”
Just two days after bringing her to their home, Porter tripped while walking Maggie, and the dog bolted into the neighborhood.
“I couldn’t reach her lead. She saw me bolt for it and she took off,” she said.
The couple started searching the neighborhood and making calls.
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After His Drone Was Recently Shot at in Maine, Its Pilot Finds Welcome and Kindness in Bar Harbor Search For Missing Dog
A New Hampshire company, 2A TAC Air OPS, is heading to Bar Harbor this evening to help find a lost dog and found kindness and community.
The visit comes after the search and rescue drone used by the company has been recently shot at twice during searches for missing pets.
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Man helps find missing animals with his drone
Check out my interview with WABI 5.
Drone helping locate lost dogs shot at twice this month
A man using drones to help find missing dogs says he has been under fire twice in Maine this month.
Based in New Hampshire, Rob Russell has owned 2A TAC Air OPS for about three years. Russell travels across the Northeast, helping locate missing people and animals by deploying his three drones.
Drone pilot who found Porter details process
Last week, friends, family and volunteers spent nearly 40 hours searching for Porter, a chocolate lab who escaped and ran off after a car crash near Donnelly’s Corners, about 5 miles north of Saranac Lake.
As the search went on, the decision was made to take it to the next level — literally. Rob Russell, who owns and operates 2A TAC Air OPS Drone Services, was called in to search for Porter using a heat-sensing drone. Less than an hour after the drone launched, Porter was found. He was subsequently given a clean bill of health and reunited with his owners.
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‘He was thrilled to be rescued’
Forty hours after Porter, a chocolate lab, escaped from a car crash and ran off into the fields near Donnelly’s Corners, he was reunited with his family Friday morning, following many hours of on-foot searching and a short drone search.
Dogs mean a lot to their owners, said Dan Bain, the founder and director of the Joshua Fund — a licensed dog rescue nonprofit based in Jay. But Porter especially meant a lot to the Shanty family.
Kim Shanty adopted Porter from the Joshua Fund in 2023 and they went everywhere together.
“Porter was her world,” Bain said.
Kim died unexpectedly on Aug. 4 at her home in Saranac Lake. She was 40.
“This is the last thing we have of my daughter,” Kim’s mother Jane said of Porter on Thursday night.
The family got a bit of joy back on Friday, Bain said.
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Maine animal rescuer’s drone shot down in unexpected turn of events
When Robert Russell launched his drone in Corinth on Sunday, it was supposed to be a routine pet rescue. But the mission took a turn when someone shot the drone out of the sky.
Russell owns 2A TAC Drone Services, a Maine-based search and rescue company that uses drones to help locate missing pets, livestock, and sometimes even people.
“Whether it’s a dog, a cat, a horse… when that animal goes missing, it consumes the family,” Russell said. “So they call me.”
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"This hurts my business" Drone shot in Maine during search for missing dogs
A man who runs a drone business, often helping search for missing people and animals, says one of his drones was shot in mid-air earlier this week.
Rob Russell runs 2A Tac Air Services. He searches for missing pets and people across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont using his three drones.
He says he was flying in Corinth on Tuesday, September 9th, looking for two missing beagles when he says someone shot the drone, damaging its front sensors.
“Had it hit the camera, that’s an additional $5,000 and at that point they can’t fix that.” explains Russell.
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Greenville family reunited with horse after multi-day search effort: "I had no idea the community that I had around me"
A family in Greenville has been reunited with their horse after a multi-day search and rescue mission through the vast Northern Maine wilderness.
It’s every horse owners nightmare. Greenville resident Amy Delmonico was going to feed her horse Brewer early Saturday morning, when suddenly the horse bolted after being startled by their family dog.
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A missing dog was trapped on train tracks in Wells. A drone helped find him.
A beloved dog gets his leash caught on railroad tracks as a train approaches.
“[A rescue] involving a train that weighs thousands of tons and a dog being stuck on the track, that’s something out of the movies,” said Rob Russell, an FAA-licensed drone pilot, who helped find the dog after it went missing from its owner’s home in Wells.
Truck, a plott hound, a breed of hunting dog, went missing on May 31 after chasing a turkey into a wooded area, still dragging his leash. He eventually made his way to a Downeaster Amtrak line, where his leash got caught on the tracks, Russell said.
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Extensive four-day search leads to ‘miracle’ dog rescue by professionals in Raymond
Rob Russell and Carmen Brothers aren’t superheroes, but it would be tough to convince Dawn Elwell of Raymond otherwise.
Elwell was desperate to find her lost dog Pearl, who had escaped from a groomer in Raymond and had disappeared on April 30. After four days of searching for Pearl and running out of hope, Elwell hired Russell’s 2A TAC Air Ops Drone Services of Barrington, New Hampshire to see if he could do something to help.
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New Hampshire drone company helps Maine family find their missing dog
A Maine family has been reunited with their dog thanks to a New Hampshire drone company.
After two days with no sign of their 8-month-old French bulldog, Stormi, the family contacted 2A Tac Air Ops, a Barrington, New Hampshire, drone service specializing in animal searches.
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Local volunteers trying to recover missing cats and dogs lost during floods
While communities continue cleaning up this week, some of our neighbors are still searching for their pets lost in last week’s storms. Thankfully, because of local volunteers and their technology, many owners aren’t searching alone.
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Bacon, patience, and a heat-seeking drone bring Sully home
Sully, an 8-month-old Bernese Mountain Dog is recovering with his humans after being lost on the slopes of Sugarbush for over three days before being found thanks to a thermal drone and a dedicated team of professionals and volunteers.
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New England’s Unsolved: The Disappearance of Amanda Grazewski
A frustrating 4-year search for a missing woman in New Hampshire: No one has seen or heard from Amanda Grazewski since Saint Patrick’s Day 2020. She was last seen in Derry, NH. But the search for Amanda has taken police to several local cities.
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Drone search for missing woman finds points of interest
An organization that conducts free drone searches for missing people, pets, and livestock searched a 40-acre area on Friday for a woman last seen in Derry in 2020.
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Remains found in Barnstead, identified as Ashley Turcotte
Law enforcement officers recovered the remains of Ashley Turcotte of Barnstead Saturday morning in a wooded area near Town Hall. Rob Russell, owner of 2A Tacitical, a gun shop in Barrington, has been volunteering to search for Turcotte every weekend since she went missing.
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