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title: SearchWing - Team introduction

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# SearchWing - Team introduction

![image alt](https://searchwing.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/malta-aircraft-wide-2048x472.jpg)

We are a group of volunteers that develops, builds and operates specialised autonomous drones for Search and Rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea.

Private rescue organisations of the civil fleet conduct civil search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean sea.

We support these operations with an autonomous aerial rescue drone that can be launched and operated from a search vessel.
SearchWing’s history

    I watched the 2016 CCC talk of Steini, Ruben Neugebauer and Bentho in spring 2017 who proposed the idea of a light drone which can support the search activities of civilian search and rescue organisations.

    In May 2017 I proposed the idea to students of the Hochschule Augsburg and the founding meeting took place on 8th of May 2017.

    The combination of technical challenges to build a drone and the feeling to do something about the huge number of humans drowning have driven us since.
    Friedrich Beckmann

Things have evolved: Since 2022, Searchwing e.V. is a registered non-profit organisation under German law. As a team of volunteers from all over Germany, we work together to build unmanned aerial vehicles to find people in distress at sea.
Our leading principles

We commit to the following principles:

    We are an independent non-profit organisation of volunteers with equal rights.
    We help all humans in distress regardless of origin, nationality, gender, and religious or political believes.
    The drones will only be used to find people who want to be found.
    We provide our drones to all organisations who pursue these same objectives.
    We will not provide third parties with drones or sensitive technologies who have objectives that do not comply with the objectives of SearchWing.
    We inform about our work in order to highlight the situation of people in distress.

Due to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the Mediterranean Sea, our activities concentrate on that area for the time being.

We regard the current search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean merely as a fight against a symptom of the disastrous border policy of the EU. We support the demand for safe and legal pathways, and urge the European states to establish a public search and rescue operation, respecting fundamental human rights.
Partners

We are happy to partner with any NGO conducting civil search and rescue operations at sea. At the moment, intensive partnerships connect us to:

    MISSION LIFELINE e.V.
    Sea-Eye e.V.
    ResQship e.V
    SeaWatch e.V.

So far, more than 20 search and rescue drone pilots have been trained in the course of theses missions.



# Join Us


Our team of activists meets regularly in Berlin, Augsburg, and online.

There are plenty of things to do, and we look forward to meeting you – it’s a lot of fun!

[Click here for more info](https://wordpress.searchwing.org/get-involved/)