Translated material
Millionaire's trail
They will try to find Stephen Fossett's plane this weekend
The search for American millionaire Steve Fossett, who flew around the earth but did not return from a pleasure flight over Nevada, officially ended last week, will be resumed next weekend. Yesterday it became known that a scrupulous analysis of satellite images, in which, in addition to specialists, tens of thousands of Internet users took part, yielded certain results. True, the experts from the US Air Force distinguished themselves. By combining satellite data with radar information from September 3, when the extravagant traveler took off on his last flight, they calculated the most likely place where his plane crashed. On Saturday and Sunday, this area will be combed by both ground rescue teams and thoroughly examined from the air.Nevada Department of Public Safety spokesman Gary Derks, who broke the news, tried to be as careful as possible in his statements so as not to give false hope to the balloonist’s family and friends, who had spent the last week searching at their own expense. Derks emphasized several times that rescuers will not have any specific point; the search area will include the territory of two states at once - the Death Valley National Park region in California and Silver Peak Lake in Nevada. According to him, specialists from the Air Force simply managed to somewhat localize Fossett’s route and at least understand in which direction he flew on a small Super Decathlon plane. Those traces that the plane could have left when it landed or crashed in a rather inaccessible area of terrain, and which experts noticed, will give rescuers a new vector for searches, reports the Associated Press. Although Derks warned that the missing millionaire left virtually no traces. He didn’t make a flight plan about where he was going, didn’t tell him much, and often flew at too low an altitude, which did not allow radars to clearly track his route.
Actually, it was precisely this uncertainty that contributed to the unification of tens of thousands of Internet users into a single team of virtual search engines. On a specially created website, filming from space was posted, and everyone could get a “piece” of the surface for careful study. This global project was organized by British billionaire Richard Branson, a friend of Fossett's, who co-financed many of his adventures, such as a flight around the world in a hot air balloon. In a lightweight aircraft, the GlobalFlyer, designed by engineers from Branson's Virgin Atlantic, Fossett attempted to circle the planet in 80 hours. The billionaire supported the relatives of the missing traveler in their plans to continue the search.
If search teams involving police and national guards over the weekend find no traces of the crashed plane and the area is difficult to access, the rescue operation will be suspended again. It has already cost taxpayers more than $600,000. However, Gary Derks assured that if new encouraging information like the one that appeared this week emerges, rescuers will again be mobilized and sent in search of one of the most famous people in America.