Google Earth allows computer users to join hunt for Fossett

· Satellite imaging program boosts search for aviator
· Nevada state proves to be aircraft graveyard

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Tuesday September 11, 2007

Guardian

For a moment on Sunday, rescuers in Nevada searching for the aviator Steve Fossett thought they might have found what they were looking for. Reporters were summoned to Minden-Tahoe airport and a helicopter was scrambled to check out a possible sighting of the wreckage of a single-engine aircraft.

But 30 minutes later the helicopter crew reported back that the wreck was not Mr Fossett's plane but the debris from an old US navy crash.

"Once again you had your hopes raised and dashed just as we have," civil air patrol major Cynthia Ryan told reporters. "This search is big, it is frustrating and it is exhausting, physically and mentally."

But as the search for the 63-year-old enters its second week, rescuers have received help from an unlikely source: Google Earth. The satellite imaging program has released new, up-to-date images of Nevada which, through a collaborative system run by Amazon called Mechanical Turk, enables individual users to search from their homes and notify rescuers in Nevada of potential leads. The system's creators say the plane Mr Fossett was flying would appear as an object about "21 pixels long and 30 pixels in wingspan".

But rescuers assembled in the western Nevada desert close to the California border are becoming increasingly frustrated. A second wreck was found on Sunday, but again it was not Mr Fossett's plane.

"We're finding them left and right. Nevada is a graveyard," Kim Toulouse, a spokesman for the Nevada department of wildlife, told the Associated Press.

There are 129 known crash sites in Nevada, but officials estimate that over the last 50 years more than 300 small planes have disappeared in the state.

The false alarms highlight some of the difficulties facing rescuers as they comb 17,000 square miles of wilderness.

At least six old crash sites have been discovered since Mr Fossett went missing on September 3. He set off in a two-seat Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon from the private airfield of hotel magnate Barron Hilton for what was to be a three-hour trip. The plane was one of a selection at the Flying M ranch by Mr Hilton, the grandfather of Paris, for the use of guests. Mr Fossett and his wife, Peggy, were due to leave the ranch after his flight.

An experienced survivalist who was the first person to circle the globe in a balloon, Mr Fossett left no flight plan, instead departing with the words: "I head for the south." It is believed that he took the flight to scout for locations for an attempt on the land-speed record.

On Sunday rescuers changed tactics, focusing the search on a 50-mile area around the ranch's mile-long airstrip because most crashes occur within that radius.

"We've got close to 100% covered, at least in some cursory fashion," Mr Ryan said. "We have to eliminate a lot of territory."

Ms Fossett remained at the ranch, waiting with rescuers for news of her husband.

"The mood is very sombre but very focused," county sheriff Joe Sanford said. "I can't imagine being on the receiving end of hope that continues to turn out to be unfounded or be something we were not aware of.

"These are the best search and rescue people we have. We are going to find Mr Fossett and we are going to bring him home."