Expedition News - December 2007
EXPEDITION NEWS
December 2007 - Volume Fourteen, Number Twelve
EXPEDITION NEWS, now in its 13th year, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.
RECOVERING THE REMAINS OF BYRD'S AIRMEN
Families of three U.S. World War II Naval air crewmen left in a 60-year-old temporary grave during Admiral Byrd's fourth and the largest-ever exploration of Antarctica announced last month that the U.S. Navy is considering a formal plan to finally bring their loved ones home thanks to efforts of the George One Recovery Operation.
The crew and their photoreconnaissance Mariner Patrol Bomber, codenamed George One, remain buried in up to 150 feet below the accumulating snows of Thurston Island on the continent's notoriously foul-weathered Phantom Coast.
The recovery effort, set for November 2008, will utilize state-of-the-art recovery equipment and the highly skilled personnel of the Greenland Expedition Society (GES) that recovered the WWII P-38 Lightning Glacier Girl from 268 feet below the Greenland ice sheet. The George One/Operation Highjump Crew Recovery Team, led by former GES team member, Lou Sapienza of Seattle, will enable more than 40 surviving family members and an entire nation to honor the three young naval veterans by laying them to rest under U.S. soil.
Following the crash and explosion of their PB5 Mariner aircraft in December of 1946, Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez, Newport, R.I.; Frederick W. Williams, Aviation Machinist's Mate 1st Class, Huntingdon, Tenn., and Wendell K. Hendersin, Aviation Radioman 1st Class, Sparta, Wisc., were buried by six survivors of the flight beneath a specific and well-marked area under the starboard leading edge of the large seaplane's wing. Until now, the Navy lacked known existing technology to feasibly and safely recover these WWII airmen.
Comprised of veteran Greenland Expedition Society members, The George One/Operation Highjump Recovery Team will execute two separate expeditions. If all goes as planned, this month, in weather conditions of 0 to 10 degrees F., a six-man site survey team will conduct an 8-day intensive ground penetration radar (GPR) site survey to precisely locate and map the crash debris field in the wake of a 2004 aerial GPR survey by an Orion P-3 Sub Hunter that located the crash site to within a half-kilometer square. A 12-person team will conduct an intensive 45-day recovery effort late next year.
At press time, the group was awaiting a decision from the Navy whether the government would support the expedition. Otherwise they will turn to corporate sponsorship for assistance and will have to postpone the survey and excavation until late 2008.
The George One Recovery expeditions will be timed to take full advantage of favorable austral summer weather conditions. A U.S. Army Central Identification Lab (CILHI) cold weather anthropologist will, with assistance from the George One Team, recover the remains for transport to the Hawaii-based CILHI for full identification. A nephew of Fred Williams, Lt Colonel James Beebe, has applied to be the official military honor guard on the return of these three sailors from the Antarctic to CILHI. (For more information: Lou Sapienza, 206 240 9869, lousapienza@msn.com, www.george1recovery.org).
EXPEDITION UPDATE
Fossett's Widow: Declare Him Dead
The wife of missing adventurer Steve Fossett has asked a court to declare him
legally dead three months after he disappeared while flying over the Nevada desert (See EN,
October 2007).
"As anyone can imagine, this is a difficult day for our family, said Peggy Fossett in a
statement.
We will continue to grieve and heal, but after nearly three months, we feel now that we must accept that Steve did not survive. Mrs. Fossett filed her petition in a court in Chicago. It asks that a judge begin the process of distributing her husband's assets according to his will. "(Steve) Fossett's wealth is vast, surpassing eight figures in liquid assets, various entities and real estate, the court petition said.
The 63-year-old world record setter, who amassed his fortune as a commodities trader in Chicago, was reported missing on Sept. 3. Fossett was on a pleasure flight and not looking for a dry lake to use as a surface on which to set the world land speed record, as earlier reported. The adventurer was carrying only one bottle of water with him at the time and had no parachute.
Mrs. Fossett said she and others contributed more than $1.2 million to the search, which was scaled back in mid-September and suspended in early October although volunteer efforts continue. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a preliminary report that the plane was destroyed in a fatal accident.
"None of Steve's wealth was transferred out or withdrawn in any manner that would suggest a planned disappearance, her statement said. Steve has not accessed any of his assets since his disappearance. Steve had no debt and life insurance.
MEDIA MATTERS
Missing Wonders - With as many as 1,500 active satellites orbiting the Earth and the human population approaching seven billion, you'd think that everything of value on the planet would have been discovered by now. Not so, says Jennifer Saranow in the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 9). Her 1-1/2 page story provides an update on searches for the tomb of Nefertiti, the Holy Grail, Genghis Khan's tomb, Amelia Earhart, and others.
Technology is opening up the field, she writes. Using the Global Positioning System, searchers can better pinpoint where to look. Wireless communications allow searchers to share and analyze information from remote spots. Satellite photography can suggest likely ancient sites and trade routes, while increasingly sensitive and affordable devices use radar signals, magnetic sensors and electrical pulses to detect foundation and metal objects.
Saranow continues, At the same time, deep-diving devices that use magnetometers and sonar detection have enabled searchers to see things underwater that weren't visible even five years ago. Many such techniques are accessible to 'pretty much anybody these days,' says W. Frederick Limp, director of the University of Arkansas's Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies.
NOTE: Non-Missing Personnel news or technology advancements edited out by AII POW-MIA.