Steve Fossett Missing - Page 2

sarongsong · #31 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schlaugh

...if Fossett was incapacitated...

Seems very likely...

Quote:

September 5, 2007
...Fossett was wearing a Breitling watch capable of emitting an emergency distress signal when manually activated, and he's [Branson] concerned that no signal has been sent...
AvWeb

NEOWatcher · #32 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 01:05 PM

Ok; so Branson is trying to do something. (Google Satellites)

CNN hasn't picked that up yet...they're probably still looking on the internet for Branson/Fosset facts instead of following the story.
Thank's to the Great North and Great Britain we actually hear something.

djellison · #33 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 04:30 PM

The only thing that I can think of now is that for some reason he went straight into one of the nearby lakes. There's a few around - one fairly close to the airport is a good few miles in each direction. But even if that had happened, there would surely be some debris on the surface.

Doug

Argos · #34 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 04:43 PM

Isn´t this incapacity to find him disturbing? I mean, people can really wander unnoticed on the Nevada desert?

Nicolas · #35 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 04:57 PM

The Nevada desert tends to be large...

If he was anywhere the military REALLY didn't want you to be, they'd know he was there. As for the endless desert surrounding those places, I don't think the military consider the ability to spot a single person there as a high priority.

01101001 · #36 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argos

Isn´t this incapacity to find him disturbing? I mean, people can really wander unnoticed on the Nevada desert?

Yeah. Recent news article said it would take up to a week (maybe 6 days now) to cover the possible range with 10 aircraft, about 600 square miles (1500 sq km), most of it sparsely populated.

Rescuers to probe lake as Fossett search enters fourth day

Quote:

The 63-year-old world record-breaker's plane disappeared over a vast expanse of rugged mountainous terrain covering some 600 square miles (155,000 hectares). Officials have compared the hunt for Fossett's plane as like "searching for a needle in a haystack."

Another story said 1700 square miles.

And they are searching that nearby lake:

Quote:

While rescuers had no information to suggest that Fossett's light plane had crashed into Walker Lake, in Mineral County, Allen said officials wanted to take to the water "if only to rule it out."

tony873004 · #37 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 06:24 PM

600 sq miles is only 25x25 miles. (or 600x1, or...) , and 1700 is only about 40x40. I imagine the area they need to search is much larger than either of these figures. Your link claims he took off at 7am, while the other reports I read claim 8:30

01101001 · #38 (**permalink**) 06-September-2007, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tony873004

600 sq miles is only 25x25 miles. (or 600x1, or...) , and 1700 is only about 40x40. I imagine the area they need to search is much larger than either of these figures. Your link claims he took off at 7am, while the other reports I read claim 8:30

Maybe it's the area searched so far.

Forbes

Quote:

The search across more than 1,700 square miles has covered only a fraction of the territory that could be hiding the plane. Finishing the fly-overs of the most likely landing spots could take another week.

How about 60000 sq miles?

Record-Courier:

Quote:

The search area includes 60,000 square miles of rugged territory ranging from the basin and range in the east to the Sierra in the west.

Or 7500, concentrating on 600.

Chicagoist

Quote:

More than 10 planes have been conducting a grid search of over 7,500 square miles with a concentration on a 600-square-mile area.

Take your pick

===

Just for those unfamiliar with the emptiness of the state of Nevada: Wikipedia: Nevada Population Density Map

Lots of less-than-1-person/square-mile there.

sarongsong · #39 (**permalink**) 07-September-2007, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEOWatcher

...CNN hasn't picked that up yet...they're probably still looking on the internet for Branson/Fosset facts instead of following the story...

Oh, they're currently quite busy awaiting words from the other fellow that can't be found (since 2001)...

sarongsong · #40 (**permalink**) 07-September-2007, 05:19 PM

Odd...

Quote:

September 4, 2007
...Fossett already had sought approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to use a 15-mile-long playa in remote east-central Nevada...in Eureka County, about 225 miles east of Reno and 200 miles from where crews are searching for Fossett's plane...Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan said authorities were told Fossett took off on Monday to scout sites he could use for testing. That puzzled [BLM spokesman Chris] Worthington.
"That was news to me because he already found this lake bed some time ago, unless he was looking for a backup later on,"...
San Jose Mercury News

01101001 · #41 (**permalink**) 08-September-2007, 12:53 AM

Who were all these other people that crashed?

Douglas County Record-Courier:

Quote:

The search for famed aviator Steve Fossett has turned up six previously undocumented crash sites around Nevada and California.
[...] Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan said there are more than 150 crash sites logged in the search area.
“That we’re finding so many crash sites is an indication of the search we’re doing,” she said. “We’re putting the area under a microscope, so to speak.”
Ryan said investigating the old sites would have to wait until the search for Fossett is complete.
[...]
Ryan said about half of the 17,000 square mile search area has been gone over during the five days since Fossett flew [...]

About 8500 of 17000 square miles, for those collecting the estimates.

AFP: Fossett survival skills prompt hope as hunt enters fifth day

Quote:

Rescuers hoped Friday that Steve Fossett's legendary survival skills would enable the aviator to hold out until he is found as the search for the missing adventurer entered its fifth day.

The 63-year-old veteran of several world record-breaking solo plane and balloon flights has not been heard from since taking off from a private airstrip 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Reno, Nevada, early Monday.

On Thursday officials expanded the area of remote, mountain terrain being searched to 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) -- an area nearly the size of the state of Massachusetts -- and have said the search for the airman is like "looking for a needle in a haystack."

10000 square miles being searched. Searched? To search?

Van Rijn · #42 (**permalink**) 08-September-2007, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argos

Isn´t this incapacity to find him disturbing?

Sad, yes. Disturbing, no.

Quote:

I mean, people can really wander unnoticed on the Nevada desert?

Oh, definitely. Years ago, there was a NOVA episode on the Bermuda triangle myth, and they compared the losses there to an area in the eastern U.S. with much higher population density - which also had more examples of planes that were never found than in the so-called triangle.

It isn't always easy to see someone, and a plane can cover a lot of area. We're only guessing where he might be, so it's a real needle in the haystack situation.

sarongsong · #43 (**permalink**) 08-September-2007, 01:18 AM

Quote:

...six previously undocumented crash sites around Nevada and California...more than 150 crash sites logged in the search area...

Yikes!---beginning to look like The Bermuda Triangle West---without the water!

01101001 · #44 (**permalink**) 08-September-2007, 06:10 PM

No significant progress. Effort continues.

You Might Help Find Steve Fossett

Quote:

The search for Steve Fossett may get some potent help from above today, and you might be able to help. DigitalGlobe, which supplies many of the images from space for Google Earth, is expected to have fresh imagery of the search area today sometime and that might enable the activation of something called the Amazon Mechanical Turk. Essentially, as the images of the area are made available, anyone with a computer can conduct a pixel-by-pixel search for Fossett. The system is set up to allow masses of humans, able to differentiate objects (like airplane wreckage on a mountainside) and make judgment calls that computers don't do well.

Reno Gazette-Journal

Quote:

Allen said rescuers did not believe Fossett had packed more than a bottle of water and no food aboard his plane because he had planned a three-hour flight. However, several natural water sources in the area were searched, he said.

It could be weeks before Fossett is found.

"Searches of this nature -- typically, they can go on for as long as two weeks and longer," said Nevada Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan. "We are still scratching the surface."

tony873004 · #45 (**permalink**) 08-September-2007, 08:16 PM

Quote:

DigitalGlobe, which supplies many of the images from space for Google Earth, is expected to have fresh imagery of the search area today sometime

In Google Earth, how do you tell if the image is "fresh"? There are no dates on the images other than (c)2007.

I'm looking at Google Earth today, and comparing its image to the Google Earth image I posted in the "Finding Steve Fossett" thread. They're identical. You would expect a slightly different shading from a different light angle, or different seam areas, etc.

So it seems like they're encouraging us to look for Steve Fossett's plane using Google Earth images taken before he went missing???

It did say "today sometime", so maybe "sometime" hasn't arrived yet, but it would be nice if they were a little clearer on this issue. I want to scrutinize the area I highlighted in the "Finding Steve Fossett" thread.

Doodler · #46 (**permalink**) 08-September-2007, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argos

Isn´t this incapacity to find him disturbing? I mean, people can really wander unnoticed on the Nevada desert?

An interesting aside, a woman was found a few days ago after being missing for 17 days. And this involved a stuck truck on a road.

Its stupendously easy to disappear in the wilderness, particularly if you don't know how to make yourself found, virtually impossible if you actively want to avoid being found (SEE: Unibomber)

frankuitaalst · #47 (**permalink**) 08-September-2007, 09:36 PM

[quote=01101001;1066547]No significant progress. Effort continues.

You Might Help Find Steve Fossett

This site seems to work !
Beeing directed to amazon you get a series of pictures of the desert .
You are asked to note whether or not you detect something on this picture ( about 85*85 m ) from 1500 m . Nice . Then transmit your resukt for further processing . How big is Nevada ie how may pictures must be analysed ?

frankuitaalst · #48 (**permalink**) 09-September-2007, 12:30 PM

Pictures to examine are 85m*85 m , as if they were taken from 1500ft .
I wonder if amazon mechanical turk can get enough men at work :
Supposing they offer the total Nevada state , covering about 300.000 km² and each person does 100 pictures then more then 400.000 people must get involved as 40*10e+6 pictures must be analysed . Really a hughe terrain !

01101001 · #49 (**permalink**) 10-September-2007, 01:10 AM

For those not sufficiently convinced of Nevada's emptiness:

AP: In Nevada, 'Open Space' Is a Way of Life

Quote:

From outside Nevada, it's hard to fully appreciate just how expansive, how desolate the truly wide open spaces of the state can be.

Against that vast emptiness, the search for aviator-adventurer Steve Fossett and his single-engine plane is a search for a needle in a whole county full of hay stacks.
[...]
"There's just very, very few human beings out there," said Guy Rocha, Nevada's state archivist.

So much of the state is so desolate that the Nevada Commission on Tourism urges visitors to carry plenty of water and gasoline when traveling to many of the destinations it lists. Cell phone coverage is spotty, and often nonexistent.