steve fossett

As early winter weather begins to descend on the rugged high country of northwestern Nevada, the search for aviator Steve Fossett, missing since September 3rd, continues from the Flying M Ranch (near Yearington, NV) with an important extension to the privately funded and directed effort planned for the coming week. This will include the use of high altitude digital mapping technology linked with computer analysis and anomaly search techniques.

Rotary and fixed wing aircraft as well as ground personnel are still in place to run down leads and theories as they emerge. And although visual, infrared and hyper-spectral analysis of large areas have all generated specific leads over the past 6 weeks (as have radar trace and satellite image analyses), all have so far failed to reveal any sign of Steve's Bellanca Super Decathlon single-engine aircraft. Additionally, side scan sonar searches of the several area lakes have now been completed.

While satellite generated images such as those from Google Earth (at a resolution up to 1 meter pixel size) are well able to see an intact aircraft (or large aircraft sections / elements), the members of the ranch-based search team are now looking to analyze much higher resolution images, potentially revealing debris or a forced landing / crash site. Using a dedicated jet aircraft, the High Altitude Mapping Missions (HAMM) photography expected to begin this Sunday (21 October) will generate an image with a pixel size of 6 inches (approx 15 cms), many times more detailed than standard satellite images.

Flying at approximately 20,000 feet AGL over the mountainous terrain, the HAMM aircraft will photograph 800 sq. miles per hour or about 2000 sq. miles per day. Limiting factors will be essentially seasonal ones: increased cloud cover and low solar angle - with the sun getting lower in the sky every day. However, searchers believe that weather will be favorable from Sunday through Friday next week.

Initial missions are planned for the Sierra Nevada and White Mountain areas as winter snows will cover them first. Then the mapping will move to lower ground south of the ranch and east of the Sierra Nevadas, including into Death Valley and the Owens River valley along Highway 395. Mission flight paths are being determined by analysis of a Geographical Information System (GIS) map incorporating all known GPS traces from the aircraft involved in the private part of the search, plus data received from the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), Army and Air National Guard and US Air Force search efforts.

Analysis of the HAMM data will be done initially by Fireball International via a network of computers, with anomalies to be sorted by shape (searching for straight lines, etc), color (especially the bright blue part of the aircraft's fabric cover) and reflection / shine - or a combination of any and all these elements. Then SAR experienced personnel will review these leads to prioritize further - with helicopter, fixed wing and ground assets available to be mobilized to get eyes on each potential target.

$Boopathi$, November 23, 2009