Andorra Firefighters Aid French Rescue with Lifeseeker Tech for Missing Hiker

Andorra's firefighters assisted French rescuers on Wednesday in the search for a 74-year-old hiker missing since Tuesday in the Ariège region's Santenh sector near Saint-Girons.

Two specialists from Andorra's Mountain Rescue Group, equipped with the Lifeseeker device—unique to the Principat across the Pyrenees—deployed by helicopter from Santa Coloma fire station. The 15-minute flight brought them to the area around midday, where they scanned the zone for roughly 90 minutes.

Lifeseeker, in use by Andorran firefighters since 2017, detects active mobile phones even without coverage by providing a signal for the device to latch onto, yielding precise coordinates. In this case, it successfully located the presumed position of the hiker's phone, which officers handed to French teams before departing.

The French operation involved around 20 personnel, including those specialized in aquatic searches, dogs, drones, and additional helicopters for ground efforts. Ariège gendarmerie high-mountain group leader Captain Jean-Marc Galin praised the technology, noting it could have aided a prior rescue on Monday for a missing hiker-camper had it been available locally. He highlighted that while some French Alpine units like Grenoble possess it, Pyrenean rescue divisions do not.

Andorra's duty chief, Officer Parra, explained the system's reliance on the target phone having battery and seeking coverage. Despite the pinpointing, the overall search has not yet succeeded in locating the man.