Drones To Join Search For Missing Fort Worth Woman
PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) -- Search efforts will be enhanced on Thursday as crews will use as many as five drones to aid in the search for a missing Fort Worth woman.
Christina Morris has been missing since Aug. 30 after spending an evening with friends at the Shops at Legacy in Plano.
Texas Equusearch, a volunteer group which is leading a renewed search effort, received permission from the FAA on Wednesday to use drones in the search.
The drones were scheduled to be deployed at 8 a.m. Thursday to take aerial pictures, which will be sent back to the group's command center at Legacy Church.
Inclement weather delayed the use of the drones in the morning, but they were expected to launch before noon.
Search for Christina Morris delayed: Drones just arrived but cannot be used in this weather @CBSDFW pic.twitter.com/muVd2mxKod
— Stephanie Lucero (@StephanieCBS11) September 11, 2014
The search director says they will launch one drone at a time that will fly at an altitude of no higher than 400 feet and at a speed of about 37 miles per hour.
"We intend to fly over large open areas. We don't intend to fly over any houses, urban areas or anything like that. The reason we do this is because the large open areas are the hardest to get covered by ground crews," said Gene Robinson, with Texas Equusearch.
(credit: CBS 11 News)
The search crew says the drones are beneficial because they can shoot a lot of very high resolution pictures and feed them straight back to the mobile command unit.
"If we see something that looks like it is out of line that shouldn't be there, will blow it up and get good images," said Tim Miller also with Texas Equusearch. "Many times we can see tire tracks that are going some place."
The drones can cover a square mile in two minutes.
KRLD's Emily Trube spoke with Gene Robinson, who heads up Ttexas Equusearch's drone program.
Volunteers searched a large wooded area in Allen on Wednesday on foot, horseback, and with ATVs.
More On The Search For Christina
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