THE
INTERNET AGE OF SEARCH-AND-RESCUE
When Steve Fossett
disappeared on a flight in Nevada in September, tens of thousands of
people, many of them AVweb readers, joined the search via
Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk, a program that allows anyone with an
internet connection to view satellite imagery of the search area. A few
of those volunteers continued their efforts for months, and they
developed ideas on how to make this type of search more effective. The
result was InternetSAR.org, an organization that musters
the efforts of volunteers all over the world to help find missing
aircraft and other vehicles.
In addition to resuming the search
for Fossett, the group has launched a search for Ron Boychuk, a
Vancouver Island man whose Cessna 172 went missing in the rugged
mountains near Revelstoke, British Columbia. Web site founder Ken
Barbalace spoke with AVweb's Russ Niles about the organization and
its goals.
Click here to listen. (8.3 MB,
9:04)
