When famed aviator Steve Fossett went missing in Nevada last September, the scale of the search was humbling to many pilots who wondered, if I disappear one day, will the whole world come looking? Thanks to the Internet, it’s easier for even us regular folks to get the word out when a beloved pilot fails to come home. On Oct. 23, Ron Boychuk, 60, took off in his Cessna 172 from Springbank Airport near Calgary, Alberta, en route to Qualicum Beach, in British Columbia. He never arrived, and after extensive air and ground searches turned up nothing, his family launched a Web site in the hope that folks in the area will remember to keep a lookout. “If you or anyone you know has any information, no matter how small, we want to know, as any info that leads to the finding of Ron will result in a cash reward,” the site reads. Boychuk’s family has raised about $20,000, according to the Edmonton Sun. His three sons have joined with search and rescue teams and many volunteers to scour the area, but came up with nothing. “Because of the large area and the terrain, there is still sooo much more to search,” it says at the site. “His sons will not give up until their father is found.”
The site makes no mention of using the Mechanical Turk method that was employed in the search for Fossett, in which hundreds of volunteers worked online to search satellite images. But Fossett went missing over the desert. It seems unlikely the satellite method would help in searching the mostly forested Canada region.
