Man catches drone from falling into ocean in incredible video

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Wednesday, April 22, 2015
One man caught his $2,000 drone from falling into a watery grave in this incredible video.
creativeContent-Ryan Chatfield Images/JukinMedia/YouTube

Here's one man who went to great legnths to save his drone from a watery grave.

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Filmmaker Ryan Chatfield was flying his drone at City Beach in Perth, Australia when it unexpectedly began to lose power and descend into the ocean below.

"My first thought was 'Well that's it, I've lost it,' quickly followed by, 'Well I can't give it up without a fight, I think I can make this," Chatfield told ABC.

Video shot by a GoPro attached to the drone shows Chatfield sprinting up the beach, determined to save the drone from its watery grave. Chatfield says he spent $2,000 on the DJI Phantom 2 with a GoPro HD3.

"From the distance I was from the drone, it was impossible to tell how far off the rockwall it actually was," Chatfield told ABC. "But what I did know was that I didn't have long to get there. So when I was running I had to keep an eye on where I was going in addition to the location of the drone."

Chatfield, however, successfully manages to reach the drone just before it falls in the ocean. Even after saving the flying object, the filmmaker still had to keep the drone protected from the powerful ocean current before he made it to land.

"Just when I thought it was safe, I was hit by that wave and then I realized I wasn't out of the woods yet," Chatfield told ABC. "I had to get up the rocks before it got swamped. Climbing up wet slippery rocks with one hand and a drone that can't get wet in the other is no easy feat."