A group of students stare out over a lake during a drone competition near Stillwater. — A group of high school students compete in the overturned kayaker scenario during the inaugural Oklahoma Search and Rescue State Championship at Lake Carl Blackwell.

Inaugural Search and Rescue State Championship takes flight

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Media Contact: Jeff Hopper | Communications and Media Relations Manager | 405-744-5827 | jeff.hopper@okstate.edu

Thirty schools from across Oklahoma recently tested their skills at the first Search and Rescue State Championship at Lake Carl Blackwell near Stillwater.

The “Fly Forward” event was co-hosted by the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education at Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics.

“This event is a perfect demonstration of Oklahoma leading the nation in high school aviation curricula,” said Dr. Jamey Jacob, director of OAIRE. “This is a very practical application of the skills learned by these students. It ties in perfectly with our drones for first responders program, and shows that you can provide students an aerospace engineering or aviation focused course, but support the emergency response mission.”

Each team had the opportunity to participate in three first responder scenarios: locate an overturned kayaker along the shoreline; locate a lost hiker on one of the many trails at Lake Carl Blackwell; and provide aid to a hiker who had been the victim of a snake bite.

Teams began each scenario with a dispatch from the OSU Police Department, which provided key information helpful in finding the victims for each scenario. At the conclusion of the dispatch, teams were given an allotted time to use a map and information from the dispatches to pilot their drones to the designated area and pinpoint the location of each victim.

The teams were then evaluated on their ability to locate the target and the speed at which the mission was accomplished.

Each scenario — developed with the help of OSUPD, Stillwater Medical Center, Payne County Emergency Management and LifeNet Emergency Medical Services — tested piloting, critical thinking and teamwork skills students learned in their respective classes.

“An event like this can be vastly impactful,” OSUPD Capt. Dan Ray said. “Getting people started from an earlier age and showing them how they can play a unique role in public safety that isn’t typically thought of as traditional law enforcement or traditional public safety is crucial for future workforce development and recruitment.”

The overall state champion for the event was Wilson High School. Individual category winners were Putnam City Aviation, Kingston High School and Wilson High School. The overall teamwork and spirit award was given to P91 Homeschool Co-op.

“This event serves as an amazing way to show our students the impact they can have,” said Claudia Labeth, aerospace teacher at Wilson High School. “We live in a real small community, and this shows our kids the role they could play as first responders and how important the role of drone search and rescue could be for our community. A few of our students have even talked about getting licensed so they could possibly aid our volunteer fire department.

“That’s the joy for me — helping them realize the impact they could have and possibly setting them on a career path they hadn’t thought about before.”

Oklahoma has placed a growing emphasis on developing aerospace curriculum for its students. Schools have partnered with industry leaders and higher education institutions to meet growing workforce demands and provide insight into possible aerospace careers. The Aircraft Owner and Pilots Association, along with the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics, has also supported this initiative.

“We just started our aerospace program last year,” said Ron Dwyer, aerospace instructor with Perry High School. “AOPA and ODAA made it possible for a small school like us to get an aerospace program started. This is our inaugural competition, and I’m very appreciative that our students get to come out and compete at an event like this.”

Jacob hopes this is the first of many such competitions to come and that they can continue to grow this competition in the coming years.

“I was really, really impressed with the student teams that I’ve seen out here,” Jacob said. “They’ve done a great job of thinking like aviators and trying to solve these problems working as a team of first responders. I can’t wait to see the competition grow bigger and better next year.”