PADS had, from memory a string of leader which was flown over the distressed person so that person had hold of a lifeline which was connected to a rescue float or similar. As I said, I can't find much about the system so I'm not in a position to argue the point. What were it's faults and what was the existing system that was better? Again from memory, PADS was designed to replace precision dropping which had it's problems as well.
If you have any links, I would appreciate you sharing them. I have an historical interest.