Monday, November 10. 2008

Experts: Satellites Not Great in Finding Downed Planes in Rough Terrain

The Press-Enterprise (San Bernardino) has a reality check article highlighting how satellite imagery and other remote sensing tools are just not that helpful in finding survivors (or even wreckage) of downed planes in rough terrain. Recent efforts to find ex-Israeli paratrooper David Katz and Steve Fossett were unsuccessful even with experimental radar and infrared tools. In the end, people in the area found the two crash sites. John Pike of Global Security has the last word:

With Fossett, they mounted a pretty good-sized effort. Most people aren't worth that much money," Pike said. "I would look for the development of more rugged (crash-activated) beacons.

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I am no expert, but I arrived at the same conclusion and wrote about it just over a month ago:

http://blog.entchev.com/2008/10/04/steve-fossets-plane-wreckage-found--by-a-hiker.aspx

In a related (in my mind) story, TIME magazine in its current issue blames the Wall Street meltdown in part to over-reliance on faulty computer models.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1856998-1,00.html

Unrealistic expectations continue to be set to this day by technology vendors who have perfected the art of the presentation, elevating many sales seminars to the status of magic shows for decision-makers.

#1 Atanas Entchev (Link) on 2008-11-10 09:26 (Reply)

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