Drone used in search for Solihull dog missing for 12 days

A dog who has been missing for 12 days was not found during a search involving a drone.

Scamp and his owner, Aiden Curran, from Solihull, who has dementia, disappeared while out for their daily walk.

Following a search involving a police helicopter, the 82-year-old was discovered 15 hours later. 

But while Birmingham Airport gave permission for the drone on Thursday, the 12-year-old black and white Border Collie has not been found.

Scamp had gone missing during a walk around Elmdon and Catherine-de-Barnes on 17 June and the owner was later found at the airport.

His niece, Hollie McMullan, said a son of her aunt's neighbour had been "pushing with the air traffic control" and got permission for the drone to be used on Thursday.

People involved in the search operation said they had approached the Drone SAR For Lost Dogs UK group, which put them in touch with a drone pilot.

A search area within about a four-mile radius was mapped out and a drone was used that included a standard camera and thermal imaging camera.

Asked where she thought the dog was last seen, before Thursday's search, the niece said her uncle had mentioned a field a few times.

But she added: "It is really hard to sort of pinpoint one place to start looking, so we've just sort of looked everywhere."

Ms McMullan said Scamp was black and white on his muzzle and the dog had a "very distinctive" black dot on it.

"He's also overweight, but obviously we took into consideration the fact that if he's been out for this amount of time, he would have lost some weight," she said.

"We're not giving up, not losing hope."

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