It was in the Pointe Rouge district, in the 8th arrondissement of Marseille, that a thirty-year-old disappeared. Sunday October 29, 2023, inform BFM MarseilleFriday November 4, 2023. For six days, his loved ones, worried to death, had no news of the man whose clothes and shoes were found in the Marseilleveyre district, not far from the creeks. The searches carried out jointly by the police and firefighters in this area initially proved unsuccessful. But that was without taking into account the determination of his family and friends who also began to investigate. Friday November 3, 2023, it was thanks to a recreational drone that the missing person was finally able to be locatedlost in the creeks, in the Parangon valley area. A steep and dangerous area from which he was finally able to be extracted by civil security helicopter and the help of the marine firefighters. Suffering from hypothermia, the 33-year-old man was conscious, but visibly disoriented and exhausted after spending six days and five nights outside in adverse weather conditions.
Drones, not always effective
Admitted to hospital, he is out of danger. “He’s still in the hospital, but he’s okay. We are very happy to have found him“rejoice his loved ones, now reassured. “When it comes to disappearances, we have to keep hope, we sometimes have very good surprises”, declares a police officer for his part. It is a leisure drone, for recreational and personal use, which finally made it possible to find the Marseillais lost in the heart of the creeks. In a professional version and used by police and gendarmerie services, drones can help advance this type of disappearance investigation. Their GPS system provides valuable clues and, in the best case, geolocates the missing person. In the investigations carried out following the disappearance of little Emile in July 2023, but also of Lina in September 2023, police drones were quickly deployed. Unfortunately, the overflight of the areas near the places of disappearance did not lead to any results.