According to Saverio Isola, the drone driver of the CNSAS who intervened together with his colleague Giorgio Viana, the operation, including the search for any sign of the missing hiker, the discovery and recovery of his body and an arrest due to bad weather – lasted less than three days.
Recovery operations
With his shoulders on the ground, his gaze fixed on the mountains, 600 meters below the summit, the body of 64 -year -old Dr. Ligurio Nicola Ivaldo was found on the morning of Thursday 31 July, more than 10 months after his disappearance, thanks to his helmet that collided with the rest of the landscape.
“It was the AI software that identified some pixels of a different color in the images taken on Tuesday,” explains Isola, reconstructing the operation that led to the discovery and recovery of the remains located at an altitude of about 3,150 meters, in the most right of the three p therties that cut through the face north of Monviso, above a Glacier hanged, step by step.
The team collected all the images in five hours with only two drones on the morning of Tuesday 29 July and analyzed them using the artificial intelligence software in the afternoon of the same day. On that evening, rescuers already had a series of “suspicious points” to control. Only the fog and bad weather the following day delayed the operations.
“We woke up at 4 in the morning to reach a very distant point with good visibility on the channel where the Rossi pixels had been detected and we used the drone to see if it was really the helmet,” says Isola. “So we took all the necessary photos and measurements, sending the information to the rescue coordination center, which was therefore able to send the helicopter of the Fire Brigade Brigade for recovery and police operations.”
The role of Ai
Each drone operation is part of a rigorous method developed by the CNSA in coordination with EnacThe national agency that supervises civil aviation. “We have been using drones for about five years and for about a year and a half we have integrated the technologies of recognition of colors and shape, developing them month by month,” explains Isola. “But all this would be useless without technicians teams.”
The information from Ivaldo’s cell phone was immediately precious. The two drones of drones who have sailed in the area were helped by the experience and knowledge of four mountain rescuers experts. “It is a human result, but without technology it would have been an impossible mission. It is a team success,” said Isola.