It only took an hour for the search crew, deployed by the Bernalillo County Fire Department, to locate the hikers and their dog, which was severely dehydrated and unable to walk. But the hikers had strayed from the beaten path, and by the time they were found the searchers had also become disoriented. And they were quickly running out of daylight.
So, they launched the firefighter’s drone. Once it had located the trail, the team back at command helped it send information back to the search party. The firefighters took turns carrying the dog as they followed the drone’s directions and eventually made it out.