There are all sorts of regulations that do not apply in emergencies, or to Agency personnel in the performance of their duties.
For example, helicopters are banned from wilderness. You cannot have more than 15 people in a group on national park/forest trails.
These are routinely ignored by SAR personnel, and that is correct, as it is an allowed exception.
So:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/parknews/use-of-...tional-park.htm"Specifically, the use of drones within the park boundaries is illegal under all circumstances. Thirty Six CFR 2.17(a)(3) states, -delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter, or other airborne means,
except in emergencies involving public safety or serious property loss, or pursuant to the terms and conditions of a permit-- is illegal. This applies to drones of all shapes and sizes. "
So, there is absolutely no problem with drones being used by rescue personnel in an emergency, or probably even for training.
Why would the wilderness.org site post such misleading information?
It seems that drones would be highly useful in searching for missing people in the area of Whitney, where the number of locations are few, and a drone can be deployed in many hours less than a hundred people up a mountain.
From the posted article: "Many police forces in Canada operate UAS"
You wonder why an advanced country like the US is behind Canada on something like this?
