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.
Wow, it looks like it is almost completely intact.
Richard Branson hired a satellite to take new images of the search area. There was a special .kml file to open in Google Earth to view the new imagery.
I think that big red circle is even more effective.
< }B^)
I haven't verified this in Google Earth yet.
Hey! Isn’t that Ben Afleck’s face??
You're right. Actually I think some steel, some aluminum, some wood here and there all over the plane. Fabric covered.
New images of more eastern areas have now been loaded. The current .kml file at Mechanical Turk that I am working on covers the area east of Mono Lake (visible just below the overlay in your image) if you are familiar with Hwy 395 CA/NV border. The new .kml file at Mechanical Turk is >
http://s3.amazonaws.com/Fossett-DG-BW/Regionated_DG_2/index.kml
Cool...thanks for the update, I will update my Google Earth KML and feel better now about pouring over the image blocks looking for plane evidence! ;-)
I’m not from Missouri but you get the point. I just checked GE and checked all images for 2007 and the very latest ones over the entire state are from July.
Beleive me, I want him found alive just as everyone else doess. I am a space and technology nut and people of his caliber are VERY rare. I would tend to beleive if he survived a crash, his excellent survival skills are his best bet with the physical searching going on.
If there is a way to get more recent images on GE, please let me know.
Ron Ogletree
“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.”
When I was going to mechanic’s school the instructor told us that the advantage of a stick and fabric aircraft was that it was safer because it would crumple and cushion the crash. I re-welded and re-glued several for people who seemed intent on testing that theory.
We're still waiting for the "kill shot" from the sun he predicted back in the late ninety's. Told us then to find caves in Montana and he went to some island in the Pacific. I hear now he found some gal in the Ukraine to fall in love with.
See posts #58 and #67. Go to Mechanical Turk, get into the section for the Steve Fossett search, click on the new .kml file they have recently posted for the new satellite images and the area they now believe he may be.
He also said if he is wrong,he will quit remote viewing
One can only hope.
I hear now he found some gal in the Ukraine to fall in love with.
He's also planning on living on composted earthworms after the killshot.
Must be a cheery fellow if the best he has to look forward to is a lifetime of composted earthworm meatloaf...
ping
cool, hope they find him alive
Isn’t google imagery like a snapshot from 4 years ago
never mind, read the rest of the thread...
>>Is that a large cross near the plane?<<
At first, I thought you needed glasses! Then, I SAW it! It is NE of the plane’s (possible) location. GOOD eye!
I didn’t know web satellite photos were that current. I’ve googled my neighborhood to find an entire subdivision missing. It was built four years ago.
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