Posted on 09/13/2007 12:55:13 PM PDT by ZGuy
Steve Fossett is still missing since his plane plane disappeared on September 3 while searching for areas to attempt a new land speed record. Searching approximately 7,500 square miles, local authorities and the Air Force have yet to find the missing adventurer, but some high-tech images and assistance from the Internet community may have aided in spotting Fossett’s missing plane.
Web users have come to the aid of rescuers by examining numerous satellite images using a service by Amazon.com called Mechanical Turk. According to AVweb, an aviation news resource, it is possible that one of the Web spotters found Fossett’s missing Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon on a mountain side.
“Sure, it’s a long shot, but AVweb readers taking part in the Mechanical Turk effort to locate Steve Fossett through Google Earth imagery has found something that doesn’t look like it belongs on a mountainside. Have a close look at the accompanying image. It looks to us like it could be the fuselage and wings of a small plane. We’ll likely know soon enough if this is Fossett’s Super Decathlon (or a combination of rock and shadow that looks like it) but in the meantime, the important thing is to keep looking, ” says the posting on AVweb. “Humans are still much better at picking objects out of photos that don’t appear to belong there than computers are.”
Read more at Wired.
Thanks to iturk for the heads-up.
Doug’s Opinion
This is not the first time the Internet community has been asked to help out with searching for something. For years, the SETI@home project has been letting volunteers offer computational power on their computer to analyze radio telescope signals for sentient life among the stars. This is one case, however, where people can feel directly involved in a project versus letting a computer do the work for them.
If this Internet search for Fossett is successful, this could mark a new trend in Web volunteers being used to help find missing people quickly over vast amounts of search area. It only makes sense: the greater number of people scouring satellite imagery will dramatically increase the odds of discovering something while using less resources. Sure, searching for Fossett’s small plane in 7,500 of rugged terrain is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the more people you have looking for it, the greater the chance that someone is going to find something.
We’ll see, but it looks more like a rock formation to me.
Maj Ed Dames of Coast to Coast fame remote viewed this too.Declared the plane crashed and Fossett died..He also said if he is wrong,he will quit remote viewing
Oh.
looks to intact to be a plane on a mountain side
Buckhead?
Considering that a Citabria is mainly wood sticks and fabric... any crash isn't going to leave much. But hoping against hope, maybe he pulled off a landing.
Old crash sites are typically marked with a large X so that future searches won't waste time on them. They do tend to get worn from weather and, the X marks are renewed IF someone gets around to it....
My brother in law destroyed my Stinson on takeoff and it definitely didn’t have any 90 degrees angles you could have spotted. On the other hand I would suspect that Fossett would have used his skills to make sure the impact occurred with the minimum of speed, but if that blob at the nose is a big rock that he hit, I can imagine the wings and tail still being intact.
That was my first thought. I'm not familiar with "Mechanical Turk" but google-earth photos are often several years old. The photo of my house, for example, is at least 3 or 4 years old, not showing some changes that we've made in the last few years. So finding someone who went down in the last few days doesn't sound right.
That's a pretty safe guess at this point. The plane obviously wouldn't still be in the air, and heat and dehydration would have taken it's toll by now.
I think he slammed into a mountain side, and, for all practical purposes, disintegrated. That could explain the lack of a crash site debris field, no signal from the ELT, and no signal from his watch.
Still Praying and hoping.
Shhhhh!
What they seem to have found is Christ...wearing a propellor hat and a crucifix....with his arms outstretched for a hug.
No trailing debris...slide/skid...I dunno, but definitely worth a look.
New satellite images of the area were done just for this search.
That sure looks like a high-wing plane of some kind.
Probably just a SuperCub flying pot that didn’t make it, though.
If it’s a cross on public land there will soon be a federal judge involved.
The plane he was in was described as an acrobatic plane. Are they made of sticks and fabric?
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