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Almost three and a half months since his plane disappeared in the Venezuelan jungle, and the determination to find Bryant, Alabama native Bob Norton is as strong as ever. Family, friends and Venezuelan volunteers came together Sunday at Cloudland Canyon State Park to discuss their next step in finding Norton and his five passengers.
"It's a lot of ground search now. It was a lot of air search initially," Bob Edwards, Norton's friend of 15 years told News 12. Norton works as a missionary pilot for Adventist Medical Aviation. He flies sick and injured natives to and from medical facilities. "He was feeling fulfilled in doing what God had called him to do," Barbara Kay, Norton's sister said. For almost three and a half months now, Bob Edwards says a group of friends, family and Venezuelan volunteers have spent countless hours pouring over satellite images - trying to determine where Norton's plane went down. "Just a few weeks ago we were introduced to a organization called MAST - which is Missing Aircraft Search Team - out of Deluth, Minnesota working with us this weekend to sort through all this data and try to find out what is the best, most probable areas they should be searching," Edwards explained.
"I have to stress that searches are solved by data. They're solved by intelligence and there's just a lot of ground scratching, gut-wrenching investigation that has to be done to dig us these fax to make the best search plan," Rick Slatten with MAST stated. "It overwhelms me at all the outpouring of concern and love in both in Venezuela and the states," Kay said. Despite the uncertainties and amount of time that has passed, the team focuses on the positive. Three days after the plane disappeared, an emergency signal transmitted in the area Norton was known to be flying. "It was a male voice in English and there were no other pilots in the area at the time," Edwards noted. And there's the fact Norton is with natives who know how to survive in the dense jungle terrain. "If you need people with you..that's the people to have to know what to eat and how to survive," Edwards added.
Edwards says he plans to make a second trip to Venezelua. He says he can't say thank you enough to all the people who've helped in the search.
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