On Tuesday, a Spanish drone operator obtained authorization to use a remote-controlled net to grab three malnourished dogs stuck near a volcano in the Canary Islands and fly them out over a lava stream.
On the island of La Palma, the three canines had been stranded for weeks in an abandoned yard coated in volcanic ash.
They’ve been fed by drones dropping food packages, but no one has been able to find out how to save them until now. Helicopters are not permitted to fly into the region due to the presence of hot gas that might harm their rotors.
Emergency officials stated in a statement that they had decided to authorize the intended rescue attempt after assessing it.
Aerocamaras CEO Jaime Pereira said he planned to send a 50-kilogram drone fitted with a large net to try to catch the dogs one by one and carry them to safety 450 meters distant over streaming lava.
Pereira tells the media, “It’s the first time an animal is being rescued with a drone and the first time it has to be captured.”
He added, “If that’s the last option that the dogs have? Then we’re going after them.”
The operator will only have four minutes to attract a dog to the net and another four minutes to fly it out.
As per Pereira “What we don’t want is to run out of battery when flying over the lava.”
Test flights are still taking place. In the end, Pereira says, the mission will be determined by how the dogs react to the gadget.
According to Pereira, “They’ve been eating very little for weeks. They might come, or become scared of the drone. We really depend on their reaction.”
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