{"id":39481,"date":"2026-06-27T03:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39481\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T03:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:48:23","slug":"hikers-lost-in-kosciuszko-national-park-rescued-by-drones-powered-by-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39481\/","title":{"rendered":"Hikers lost in Kosciuszko National Park rescued by drones powered by AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two hikers lost in Kosciuszko National Park have been found by a drone powered by artificial intelligence, in what Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) is calling a first-of-its-kind mission.<\/p>\n

The men, both in their early 20s, were reported missing at 7pm on Tuesday while hiking the Dead Horse Gap walking track, 35 kilometres south-west of Jindabyne.<\/p>\n

Fire and Rescue members from the Jindabyne Fire Station were called to assist the search and launched a remote-controlled drone powered by AI detection software.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The drone’s thermal camera and AI system detected the hikers about 500 metres off the walking track. (Supplied: Fire and Rescue NSW)<\/p>\n

The Remote Air Piloted System used thermal imaging to identify the hikers in the park and pinpoint their exact location, finding they had veered about 500 meters off the track.<\/p>\n

Police and State Emergency Service volunteers were able to contact the hikers using the drone’s built-in speaker and send rescuers to guide them out of the park, less than five hours after they were reported missing.<\/p>\n

They suffered mild effects of exposure but declined medical treatment at the scene.<\/p>\n

First-of-its-kind mission<\/p>\n

It was the first time the drone’s AI detection system had been successfully used by FRNSW to rescue a missing hiker.<\/p>\n

FRNSW Inspector and regional duty commander for the NSW Alpine area, Phillip Eberle, said the technology probably reduced the search by several days.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely helped make what could have been a long-term incident into a very short-term incident,” Inspector Eberle said.<\/p>\n

“There’s every chance in the world we could have still been out there.”<\/p>\n

FRNSW Aviation Unit team leader and chief remote pilot, Inspector Russell Turner, said the drones were part of a statewide technology upgrade introduced over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Inspector Russell Turner flies the AI-powered drone. (Supplied: Fire and Rescue NSW)<\/p>\n

The drones carry four cameras, including infrared cameras, allowing its AI software to analyse thousands of images in real time.<\/p>\n

Inspector Turner said the system could identify humans, vehicles and animals, while also recognising other moving heat sources.<\/p>\n

“When the machine determines that it thinks it’s a person or a vehicle or a vessel, it will ping and put a display on exactly where it thinks that person is,” he said.<\/p>\n

The drones also feature augmented reality mapping, allowing crews to instantly display fire trails, bush tracks and roads on screen during a search operation.<\/p>\n

\"Phone<\/p>\n

The drone has four cameras, allowing its AI software to analyse thousands of images in real time. (Supplied: Fire and Rescue NSW)<\/p>\n

He said the system could help monitor conditions in other emergencies, like the number of dead fish in a creek impacted by a chemical spill.<\/p>\n

Less lives at risk<\/p>\n

Inspector Eberle said the new technology meant rescuers in the Snowy Mountains could spend less time in risky situations.<\/p>\n

“It means less time on the mountain and less time looking for people, and reduced risk so that the volunteers can get home to their families quicker,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said he hoped to see the technology advance to be able to drop off overnight care packages to people while they waited for assistance.<\/p>\n

“We can save putting rescuers at risk overnight and drop a rescue pack to people so they’re OK overnight, and be there first thing in the morning when it’s safer for everyone,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two hikers lost in Kosciuszko National Park have been found by a drone powered by artificial intelligence, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1132,22,21,242,32098,32096,16102,32097,5305],"class_list":["post-39481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-drone","tag-drone-finds-missing-hikers","tag-fire-and-rescue","tag-kosciuszko-national-park","tag-missing-hikers","tag-rescue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}