He was filming his family with a drone... what he saw saved their lives

Dan Watson probably saved the lives of his wife and three children… with his drone. One sunny Sunday, this American photographer was making the most of a beautiful afternoon on New Smyrna Beach in Daytona (Florida) with his family, when he decided to immortalise the idyllic moment.

‘Yelling to get out of the water’

‘Kids were playing in the beach and I just decided, ‘Hey, now’s a good time to get a picture of them overhead,’ said Dan to a local news channel, Fox 35. But as soon as his drone started filming the scene from above, the dad spotted a menacing shadow swimming just a few feet away from his 9, 6 and 5-year-old children. It only took him a few seconds to understand the danger that was heading their way. The shadow belonged to a large sharkthat was swimming close to the coast.

‘I was screaming, ‘Get out, get out, get out!’ he explained, very aware that they had only narrowly escaped the tragedy that could have befallen them. His wife stated:

When you think of a shark, you think of them in deep water, you don’t think of them extremely close and you don’t think they’ll come in knee deep water.

An ordeal that rattled Instagram

This amazing scare was later shared by Dan on Instagram, where he went into detail about the two photos taken by his drone(you can check out the pictures in the video at the top of this article). He stated:

See that dark shadow making its way straight for the shore and those people? My daughter was pretty amazed and a little nervous. I think we’re going to work on our sandcastle skills now.

Take a look at the video above to see the chilling drone footage for yourself...