An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) deployed by the Legal Commissioner, U. Sagayam, for an aerial survey of one of the quarries near here accidentally fell into the water in a pit on Monday.
The imported UAV, measuring around one-foot, could not be located by the Fire and Rescue Service personnel and ‘native’ divers till late in the evening.
The UAV plunged into the water after hitting the rock formation while capturing the images of the granite quarry site at Karuppukal near Varichiyoor in the district.
After a successful first sortie for a little over 20 minutes, the UAV, operated by aero-modelling expert S. Parthasarathy and his daughter P. Poorna, was brought back for changing its exhausted battery.
However, within minutes after it took off for the second sortie, it hit the rock formation and disappeared 200 metres away from its base.
Mr. Sagayam, appointed by the High Court to probe into illegal granite mining, had chosen to deploy the UAV for the aerial survey of the quarry pit which was one of the deepest found during his inspection of quarries since December 3, 2014.
“Since the access to the quarry was blocked by huge boulders and wild growth of juliflora around it, Mr. Sagayam thought the UAV could provide a bird’s eye view of the quarry,” an official involved in the inspection said.
