Each to their own, but a free comment…
You are aware (of course) that the Fossett search was in an area which was essentially desert, no significant ground cover, with little ground traffic, and crashes show up well – as against the Pacific where most of the ground is covered in jungle, including many of the ex-airfields and depots. Yes, there are wrecks to be found, but if they haven’t been found yet, it is highly unlikely they will be found by a satellite search. Even the wrecks in shallow water have, for the most part, I suspect been found, so far, but that would be your most worthwhile (read least waste of time) arena. I’m working with a guy who knows his way around these areas firsthand, and there may be a role for Google Earth searching, but it’s probably minor, and peripheral.
There are (probably) few recognisable aircraft wrecks that can be ‘seen’ from any vantage point. What is left is smashed up crashes and dumped wrecks, and those are often in the roots (let alone foliage) of the plant life there. You can be literally standing on a wreck and not know it.
The presumption that you can check off any significant areas as ‘nothing here’ is flat wrong.
Boring I know, but there’s more worthwhile things to do. Anything really.
Regards,
The desert where Fossett went down if far from empty. Most of it is covered in a dense bushland and yes, its pretty hard to find anything even there.
The CAP flew many hours over the desert and found nothing, even used their ARCHER ground scanner and still found nothing. BUT the Google search did find 5 other aircraft, that had been missing for years (some since the sixties, and that place has planty trafic, hickers, locals and flyovers).
I did not mean to suggest, that every area where nothing is spotted should be marked as empty. But we will get boxes where no significant remains is likely and we will get boxes with anomalies, which can be used by those who search the ground.
I also realise that most remains will be covered by jungle and only found if someone stumbles upon them.
I’m you spend an hour looking at the sat images, you will see just how deserted and wast those islands are. There are a good chance something new will be spotted. We might not find a full aircraft, but if we can generate locations, where there might be something, its an aid to anyone searching the ground.
A place like Morotai, even the Indonesian military who manage the island, have no idea about the area outside their perimiter (they are not even sure about the actual base). They might have heard about planes, but the place is so wast, that Japanese soldiers have been hiding there untill the 1970’s (some say even longer).
Sign In
