Officials doubtful over internet tips in Fossett hunt
The search for missing aviator Steve Fossett has generated internet tips and volunteer pilots, though whether the extra aid is helping or hurting the rescue effort is still an open question.
By Agencies |
MINDEN: The search for missing aviator Steve Fossett has generated internet tips and volunteer pilots, though whether the extra aid is helping or hurting the rescue effort is still an open question. Driven by Google search technology that enables couch potatoes to view from their computers high-resolution photographs of the rugged Nevada landscape where Fossett went missing, thousands of amateur volunteers are trying to help the hundreds of official searchers.
“This is kind of a new thing for us,” said civil air patrol Maj Cynthia Ryan, who said every Google-generated tip is reviewed and the best ones passed on to pilots. So far, there have been several false sightings of Fossett’s airplane.
A private search effort also is being driven in part by hotel magnate Barron Hilton, who has opened the mile-long airstrip at his Flying M Ranch to search planes and helicopters. While the private effort has worked side by side with the government during the eight-day hunt, officials said they are becoming worried the latest call for volunteers could bring in people who are unfamiliar with the vast and often dangerous landscape.
“It has not been condoned, nor is it necessarily helpful to the law enforcement community,” Lyon County undersheriff Joe Sanford said Sunday. “We don’t want searchers to have to go out to look for searchers.”
Sanford said a lack of oversight sometimes leads to the official search effort covering ground already searched by the private effort. He said the private effort was still welcome, but noted that it is ‘impossible to track.’On Fossett’s internet site, a link is offered to the satellite image analysis project, and search coordinator Mark Marshall has asked for help from pilots trained in search and rescue.
“This is kind of a new thing for us,” said civil air patrol Maj Cynthia Ryan, who said every Google-generated tip is reviewed and the best ones passed on to pilots. So far, there have been several false sightings of Fossett’s airplane.
A private search effort also is being driven in part by hotel magnate Barron Hilton, who has opened the mile-long airstrip at his Flying M Ranch to search planes and helicopters. While the private effort has worked side by side with the government during the eight-day hunt, officials said they are becoming worried the latest call for volunteers could bring in people who are unfamiliar with the vast and often dangerous landscape.
“It has not been condoned, nor is it necessarily helpful to the law enforcement community,” Lyon County undersheriff Joe Sanford said Sunday. “We don’t want searchers to have to go out to look for searchers.”
Sanford said a lack of oversight sometimes leads to the official search effort covering ground already searched by the private effort. He said the private effort was still welcome, but noted that it is ‘impossible to track.’On Fossett’s internet site, a link is offered to the satellite image analysis project, and search coordinator Mark Marshall has asked for help from pilots trained in search and rescue.
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