Civil air patrol take hundreds of images today of Ben Loyal area in hope of finding missing Dornoch man
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Hundreds of high definition images were taken from the air today of the Ben Loyal and Tongue area in a bid to locate missing Dornoch man Stuart Campbell.
The photographs were taken by members of aviation charity UK Civil Air Patrol Scotland (UKCAPS) who spent more than an hour flying round the mountain and surrounding area.
The organisation's operational director for Scotland Archie Liggat told the Northern Times the high resolution images would be analysed tonight to see if there was any trace of 33-year-old Mr Campbell who was reporting missing on Monday, July 27, and whose car - a red Suzuki Swift, registration SY08 OFA - was found at a car park most regularly used by walkers accessing Ben Loyal.
"There are various ways of searching for people," said Mr Liggat. "But when looking for someone lost for some time, it is best to use the photographic method. We take hundreds and hundreds of photos and analyse them afterwards. It is quite an efficient way of locating people, but it takes some time to analyse the images so we will not know anything until this evening or tomorrow."
The civil air patrol pilot and another member of the aviation group were on board a Jabiru four-seater, light aircraft, which took off from Inverness airport just after 10am and headed north, returning to the Highland capital in the mid-afternoon.
It was intended to land at Wick airport and re-fuel before taking to the sky again, but low cloud prevented this.
Mr Liggat said the civil air patrol had become involved in the search following a request from a member of the Campbell family.The air patrol hope to resume the search tomorrow, but it is weather dependant.
"This is a long-term search," said Mr Liggat. "There is no point in us setting off when the weather is not good. For aerial photographs we need days when the light is good, the cloud base high and the wind light."
Meanwhile, a second aircraft unconnected to the civil air patrol was also scouring the same area earlier in the day with the same aim in mind.
Richard Robins-Bird set off from Dornoch air field at 6.12am and spent two hours and 24 minutes in the air before returning to base. His was a visual search.
Afterwards he posted on social media: "Regret to advise nothing seen other than deer and a solitary cow".
Mr Robins-Bird wrote that he had briefed Mr Liggat as to the area he had searched and the weather conditions.
Assynt Mountain Rescue Team were involved in a search on the ground today.
