Here’s the March 13 story from the Huntsville Times:
| Aegis joins search for missionary family’s plane
A Huntsville company specializing in the enhancement of satellite imagery has joined efforts to find a missing Jackson County pilot, his wife and five other people whose plane apparently crashed in a Venezuelan jungle last month while on a missionary trip. Aegis Technologies is working with Colorado-based DigitalGlobal, an operator of high-resolution, earth-imaging satellites, to photograph the dense jungle terrain where the plane was last seen in the hope of finding any wreckage. […] Edwards said he believes Norton and his passengers could still be alive. “He’s an incredible pilot,” he said. “If anyone could stick a landing in that type of terrain, he could.” If they were able to survive the crash, he said, they would have a difficult time finding their way out of the dense jungle. But Edwards said they would have plenty of water, and the natives would probably provide them with food. |
And here’s the March 5 story from the Kansas City Star:
| 7 aboard mission plane missing in Venezuela
A mission pilot from northern Alabama whose father died doing similar work three decades ago has been missing more than three weeks along with six others since their small plane likely crashed in the dense jungles of Venezuela, the pilot’s mother said. Nytta Norton of Bryant said Bob Norton, 48, director of Adventist Medical Aviation Venezuela, was flying the plane. Also aboard was his wife, Neiba, a registered nurse, two adults accompanying two sick children, and missionary Gladis Zerpa, who taught at La Gran Sabana Adventist School in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar. She said her son “grew up with a missionary spirit and was carrying on for his dad,” Elwin, who was killed while piloting a mission plane that crashed 29 years ago in Mexico. Venezuela’s National Civil Aviation Institute and several air rescue groups searched for three days after the plane was reported missing Feb. 16, she said. |