USA / UNITED KINGDOM: Search in Nevada for American adventurer Steve Fossett, Richard Branson hoping satellite images will help

The search for missing U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett resumed on Wednesday (September 5) as his friend, British billionaire Richard Branson, tried to find him through a satellite mapping service offered by Internet data provider Google. The state wing of the Civil Air Patrol resumed its search, focusing on a 600-square mile (1,554-sq-km) area south of the airstrip used by Fossett about 80 miles (128 km) southeast of Reno, Nevada. Maj. Cynthia Ryan of the Civil Air Patrol said the operation was still a rescue mission. "We prefer to remain optimistic. This is still a rescue effort as far as far as we're concerned and recovery doesn't start until we actually find something," she said. Three helicopters and six airplanes are involved in the mission. One of the airplanes is a Utah Civil Air Patrol aircraft with imaging technology that quickly distinguishes man-made objects, including aircraft wreckage, from natural objects. On Tuesday (September 4), 13 aircraft looked in vain for signs of Fossett's plane in the Nevada desert and mountains. Richard Branson has been in close contact with Fossett's wife. "I've just rung Larry Page from Google to see whether we could use satellite pictures of the last four days to see whether we could perhaps pinpoint which direction his plane was going. You know, is there anything on one satellite picture that is on the ground that looks a little bit out of the ordinary. And so I think now we'll start mapping satellite pictures and see if we can get anything from that," he said. But the Civil Air Patrol wasn't optimistic Google images would help. "I don't know. How well have you been able to Google close in on something? I mean, I can see my house from outer space but I can't see anything five miles from it. It's just not available to the satellite, apparently. So it's a little questionable, but maybe they can do it, I don't know," said Maj. Ryan. Branson has teamed up with Fossett on several aviation adventures and his Virgin company underwrote the U.S. aviator's successful first solo nonstop flight around the world in 2005. Fossett, who was piloting a plane with enough fuel for four or five hours of flight, earned his fortune as a financial trader. In 2002 he became the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world.

ITN Source | September 6, 2007

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