The December 2007/January 2008 issue of National Geographic Adventure has an excellent piece by James Vlahos about the SAR (S

earch And Rescue) effort following Steve Fossett’s disappearance. “The Vanishing” appears on page 68 of the print edition – but not at all on National Geographic Adventure‘s on-line counterpart. Vlahos makes some interesting points about the human factors issues that are likely to have led to Fossett’s death, and suggests that decentralized – and perhaps somewhat uncoordinated – efforts – may have overlooked some portions of the area in which Fossett was most likely to have crashed. This is worth a read – especially if you’re not familiar with the large area/small target search problem.

The National Geographic Adventure websitedoes have a great piece on survival skills by Laurence Gonzalez . About which more shortly.