[MacDoc]

I'm sure many of you know the adventurer has been missing for a week in this area.

Switch it to satellite to see the terrain

38.603611,-119.003056 - Google Maps

If you then search Google Maps on this ( paste into the search window )

38.603611,-119.003056

you'll see the airstrip he took off from and a couple planes parked on the north end

Google has paid for a 1 meter satellite overfly of the area so that Steve's plane would be visible.

this is an example

If you feel like honing your google earth skills and doing some searching yourself

go here.

Steve Fossett Missing: Help find him by searching satellite imagery

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Not so straight forward - at least for me - but finally figured out the general concept.

You load the google provided satellite scan.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/fossett/geoeye-color.kml

into Google Earth.
Then the Mech Turk assigns you a search area for an hour.

This will be very interesting in the future as more "eyes" world wide are engaged in various tasks such as this search and closer to real time searches are available.

New paradigm emerging in the noosphere.

 

[MacDoc]

Yeah very early - loading is tedious but the 30" screen useful.

They've got some high tech gear looking - 6 new wrecks they've not seen before but not Steve.

Sinc he was a very cautious and rigorous pilot or he would not have survived the many records he set - no daredevil - just well prepared and this was a 3 hour flight - hardly rocket science.

If it was your kid out there lost you'd play a different tune.

This tech is going to be very big soon.

••

Rick what height are you scanning at.... I'm at about 2,000' - 3000' above elev depending on terrain.

I notice the hits are concentrated pretty close to the Flying M lately.

 

[MacDoc]

Got this email from the search coordinator ( as well as a "zoom in more" comment earlier )

What I don;t understand is if this is the last radar sighting why the satellite strips are west of Flying M.

To all who have sent coordinates or images, thank you. Some additional information:

The aircraft was last seen on NAS Fallon radar ~5 miles east of Hawthorne Army Depot, (38 30N, 118 30W) proceeding northbound, descending slowly (controlled) through 7000’ msl at 10:05 AM local time. This location is less than 30 miles ESE from the point of departure/arrival. Estimated time of return to the ranch was 11:00 AM. The predicted aircraft performance and climb rate must be adjusted down for the density altitude of this area in summer. Because it was a tube and fabric aircraft, it is very likely that the wreckage will look like a pile of sticks and paper. Satellite images of intact aircraft are usually in flight and not wreckage.

Steve was on a local pleasure flight and not surveying run sites for the LSR. The extreme terrain and high density altitude require turbine helicopters for close in search. Fixed wing and piston aircraft have proven to be unable to follow the terrain in the present conditions.

The majority of the search effort is concentrated in this area with Army and Air National Guard aircraft supplemented by volunteers and chartered helicopters manned by trained SAR operators and observers. The main search is being directed by National Guard SAR and C-SAR personnel with direct input from Steve’s staff pilot on his habits and intentions.

Eric Ahlstrom
Program Manager, ALSR
775-302-6762 cell
[email protected]

The provided satellite cover are the dark strips on the left while the last sighting is on the right. uzzled:

Below is the satellite view provided for the search. This from about 1500' above the Flying M. You can see the radar search plane and a smaller plane about the size of Steves as well near the hangar.
Given the detail the sat scans provide and the number of eyes on it, I have to think Fosset's plane is somewhere off to the right outside the up-to-date scan area.

Not sure why the sat did not scan there - maybe it can't.

 

[MacDoc]

GoogleEarth forum with info.

Google Earth Community: Steve Fossett Missing from this Air Strip!