Denver – A Spanish drone company is making plans to rescue several dogs trapped by the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma.
The rescue operation, scheduled to take place Monday, October 18th, will be a race against time to reach the stranded canines. Jaime Pereira, CEO of Aerocamaras, stated there would be both technical and legal obstacles to overcome in the group’s mission. Drone operators were still waiting on authorization from local officials to carry out the mission on Monday, reports El Pais.
Aerocamaras, the company planning the daring rescue, is a drone specialist company based in northwestern Spain. The group decided to undertake the mission after photos of the dogs shared online prompted calls for rescue from thousands of people around the world.
According to reports, Pereira and two other Aerocamaras officials were scheduled to arrive on the island Monday. The officials hope to start the rescue operation as soon as possible, as one of the dogs has already died since the plight of the canines went viral.
The two groups of dogs are trapped in water deposits in the locality of Todoque. Todoque was one of the first areas to be devastated by the volcano’s lava, which initially began erupting 29 days ago. Since then, the volcano’s lava has covered 789.6 hectares of land. Scientists have also recorded over 35,000 land tremors in the area during the last month.
As the lava continues to flow, scientists report the volcano shows no sign of letting up. Over 1,800 buildings in La Palma have been destroyed from the lava flow so far. In addition, hundreds of inhabitants were evacuated from villages on the island as the lava flow continued its destructive path.
Authorities have already used drones to fulfill several important tasks since the eruption began. Scientists continue to use drones to monitor the volcano’s eruption, while authorities have used aerial vehicles to search for at-risk populations. Now, the unmanned vehicles will be employed once again to complete a dangerous mission in the rescue of the abandoned La Palma dogs.
