Plane clash mystery solved, courtesy Google Earth
The idea of Google Earth is a very powerful one, in terms of knowledge and its depth. You can explore the places where people can’t or won’t go. Google Earth being the leader in satellite technology can be a great tool to map the entire earth in one block. Besides offering other advantages, a small but a crucial application is the technology for searching. It can be very crucial especially when you are searching for someone or something.
There was an incident where an American family from New York, lost their son when he died in a plane crash. He was on his way to San Francisco, California when his plane crashed in Arizona State. Thought the family and officials spent countless time and money on locating, the search bore no results. After two months of searching but to no avail. They concluded that they plane just could not be found. Then something incredible happened.
An Arizona enthusiast was browsing on Google Earth when he saw a picture of a forest fire. What really surprised him was that the picture was from the same date as the plane crash and also in a similar location. He immediately contacted the family who had created a website for his search. Remarkably, they were able to find the exact area in the picture using the different viewing angles and topographical data of Google Earth.
The family and some volunteers then set out to the area they had pinpointed in the program, using its coordinates. Sure enough, they found the wreckage. While it's not exactly a happy ending for the families of the two people lost in the crash. The family is now magnanimous enough to help others having the same problem.
Such types of projects tell us how important Google Earth is for the people of the world. It is great to see that the technology we often take for granted, can help people in a meaningful way. Google Earth is now being offered in 38 languages. So go explore, the world is indeed very small.
Some of the other cool features by Google Earth
Ocean: Introduced in version 5.0 (February 2009), the Google Ocean feature allows users to zoom below the surface of the ocean and view the 3D bathymetry beneath the waves. Supporting over 20 content layers, it contains information from leading scientists and oceanographers. On April 14, 2009, Google added underwater terrain data for the Great Lakes.
Historical Imagery: Introduced in version 5.0, Historical Imagery allows users to traverse back in time and study earlier stages of any place. This feature is very useful for research purposes that require analysis of past records of various places.
Street View: Google Street View provides 360° panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level. When it was launched on May 25, 2007, only five cities were included. It has since expanded to more than 40 U.S. cities, and includes the suburbs of many, and in some cases, other nearby cities. A recent update has now implemented Street View in most of the major cities of Australia and New Zealand as well as parts of Japan, Spain, France, the UK, Netherlands and Italy.
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