It'a a giant fossil lancelet (Branchiostoma lanceolata)
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.
Mazda, wrong on Google earth images. At least in this particular case. The images for the area in which Fosset went down were updates the day after he went down, to ensure that they were fresh images. So you’re not pouring cold water, you’re misinformed in this particular case.
For those of you asking about SAR signals...
http://ezinearticles.com/?Search-and-Rescue-Signals-—Your-Quick-Reference-Guide&id=122629
it’s The Arc! :)
Not all of them of course, but his was. The Citabria is a tiny little taildragger plane and it is very, very lightweight. But it is very strong and it is rated for aerobatic maneuvers.
Maybe all pilots should carry a cross with them. If they get stranded in a remote area after an emergency landing, they can put it up and ACLU lawyers will be on-site within an hour. ;)
It'a a giant fossil lancelet (Branchiostoma lanceolata)
It is an acrobatic airplane - - - in fact the name Citabria is "airbatic" spelled backwards.
I’d say that is VERY obvious. BTW, what do you think Fossett used to make that red circle?
I had heard about the new images done specifically for the search. An interesting precedent, that. Could come in handy for a number of things.
I wonder if the prior images are available too? Seems the first step in investigating something like even this plane image is to check with an older image and see if the object is new, or not.
Thanks, that answers my question too.
Correct...but I have a problem with the search area Amazon Turk selected. On the photo below the darker area is the "overlay" area Amazon selected for everyone to search. I have highlighted Steve Fossett's take-off point with a red dot. Everything I have read indicated that he was out scouting for dry lake beds for a land speed record attempt. Most dry lake beds are EAST of the Hilton Ranch where he took off from. The Amazon search area is 90% WEST of where he took off from!! With 1/2 in California! There is no indication he was headed to California. So in my opinion the Amazon Turk search has little chance of success, I guess we'll see.
That would make a difference...maybe Amazon-Turk had “inside” info. in selecting the search grid.
This is probably old news by now, but maybe it is just local — I heard that someone had been camping up by Mono Lake (Hwy 395, eastern California) and had seen/ heard a plane fly over and explode. And that they are searching for Fossett there.
I do not wish any harm to Mr. Fossett but I do wish Ed Dames would quit remote viewing. He is wrong more often than not. We are still waiting for all that gold which was to be delivered to Art on his birthday in 2006. He yammers a lot about the "kill shot from the sun" but it is to get people to buy his silly remote viewing course he is selling.
As mentioned already, new satellite images are being used for this search via the Mechanical Turk operation. You can still participate in reviewing and submitting the images at http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome, where there is a special link for this particular search (just under the search box).
Also, http://www.stevefossett.com/ has an update from Sept. 11 by one of the lead search coordinators that are searching among Mr. Fossett’s personal group and their belief is that he will be located within 30-50 miles southeast of his takeoff point.
I read on another aviation message board where this coordinator is posting and the debris from this type of plane will be—his words— “a pile of sticks and what might look like paper”.
No Sticks in the Citabria. Welded 4140 steel tubing, I think.
It is very comforting to know that should I suddenly disappear, so many in so many different venues will work ceaselessly and tirelessly to find me. Yeah!
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