Hatfield
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Im thinking from the time it happened to now...There has to be video don't u think/
We have satelites out there watching... and im sure they watch our coastlines.
Its a good question about satellite imagery.
Where that would have been the most help would have been right after the storm passed or the morning after they went missing.
Because they had a good general idea where to look on the imagery.
And the important thing is the boat itself is what we could have looked for on the images which is much larger than people.
The problem now is that so much time has passed, checking those images is a daunting task for just small objects like the people.
And the area to search is too large an area that it would take a lot of time.
There are just too many things now that make it not feasable.
Its a good idea for future incidents like this though.
I wish the Coast Guard had a system in place that could use satellite images immediately after a boat goes missing to try to get accurate GPS coordinates.
The best approach would be some sort of computer software that could scan the images for us for larger type objects that resemble a boat.
Doing that right at the time the boat goes missing could get GPS coordinates to allow search parties to focus where to go.
It makes me wonder why that is not already in place.
If I had to guess I bet this has been thought of before and I bet money comes into play. The satellite companies want to be compensated for their imagery and it could be cost prohibited.
Maybe someday this sort of thing will be common practice.
We did have public searches of sattelite images for other boats and planes. Like the MH370 plane where people scanned the images looking for the plane. The problem is it is always a daunting task unless you have a focus area. The sections have to be broken down and people have to pick which section to search and report on.
Doing it quickly right after someone goes missing is important. And if something is spotted, being able to get resources to that spot is important.
And the other issue is when public does it, you get a lot of false reports because people want to see something that is not always the object you are looking for and that can waiste time and resources. Like the Cape Hatteras thing yesterday where some people think its them and some dont.