In view of drone: a Riojan manages to fly over the La Palma volcano

The force of nature has us in suspense since September.The images of the eruption of the palm volcano and the tragedy of the people who have been homeless has been followed from the distance throughout Spain.The Riojan Rafa Ocón has had the privilege of having been able to live in situ everything that is happening there, since it has been one of the privileged few who has obtained permission to fly its drones in the exclusion zone, where the media does not can access.

This Riojan has a drone pilot school and requested to be able to record in the emergency zone, where some 20 drone operators have permission to fly with different purposes, not only to document the situation, but also to monitor the eruption, recording thermographic imagesor gases to conduct scientific studies.

Once there, "I found something very impressive".And that Ocón has traveled all over the world and has seen active volcanoes in Costa Rica or Nicaragua, but "I had never seen one as active as this or in the middle of populated areas".The fact that it can now be recorded with drones has caused that "there has never been such a media or so monitored volcano.Here it has agreed that it is in an accessible place and that dron technology is more advanced ".

The images are spectacular.From November 10 to 10, he has been able to capture "the power of nature and the fragility of the human being".They are the two sides of the volcano: "Feeling it, seeing it and listening to it is very nice and shocking, but the human part is a tragedy, it is a contradictory feeling".Ocón has become impacted on the level of lava destruction and tells how he spoke with a drone operator who "lived there and with his own drone he was seeing how the lava took his house ahead".

Talking to the people of the place, especially they have noticed that "the uncertainty of what will happen is what worries them most, nobody is clear about what they will do or where they will relocate them".What is going to be there "is a Dantesque panorama", but the Rioja believes that "if they know how to manage it well, it is an opportunity at the tourist level to exploit a volcanic park and create a pompeii in Spain".

The row of drone

Ocon publishes the images on his YouTube channel and also makes them available to channels, producers and companies.In the last 6 years he has traveled through more than 35 countries, carrying out personal or commission audiovisual projects, selling audiovisual content and publishing multimedia books.

The use that is being given to drones in the palm demonstrates that they are no longer only a fashion but have become a profession with great potential."There are already professional exits, not only recreational, although those who dedicate ourselves to this we already knew how useful emergencies, analysis and collection of data, and more in places where crew ships cannot enter and there are no personal risks.Drones can also be damaged, but the risk is only economical ".