The friends of Bob Norton are asking for donations to help with a high-tech search to find the Jackson County, Ala., missionary pilot after his plane went down in Venezuela on Feb. 16.
Friends say Mr. Norton, an Adventist Medical Aviation pilot, had flown mission trips in Venezuela for eight years and was one of the few missionary pilots left in the country after the Venezuelan government expelled other American pilots. Mr. Norton was allowed to stay because he has dual citizenship through marriage, according to friends.
Donations
Outpost Centers International is handling donations for the search for Bob Norton.
Donations can be made online at www.outpostcenter... over the phone at 423-236-5600 or by mail at 5340 Layton Lane, Apison, TN 37302. Donors must specify the donation should go to the search for Mr. Norton.
Source: Outpost Centers International
“He was out snagging sick people out of the jungle like he does and that’s when he went down,” said friend Bob Edwards, of McMinnville, Tenn., who works as an engineer in LaFayette, Ga.
Since the plane went down volunteers and government search parties have combed the dense jungle, according to a report on the Adventist Review web site.
“Our church is really distraught about the news of this tragedy,” Rodolfo Escobar, communication director for Venezuela-Antilles Union Mission, told the Gospel Ministries International Web site.
Six other people, including Mr. Norton’s wife, Neiba, were reportedly on the plane.
Mr. Edwards is spearheading the local effort to purchase high resolution satellite images of the area where the plane is thought to have gone down. He and others will then pour over the photos thousands of miles away to look for signs to give to the searchers at the site.
“It’s like a needle in the haystack, but our theory is if you get enugh people stomping through the haystack we’re going to find the needle,” he said.
The group has already contracted to have about 200 square kilometers of the area photographed, but the friends hope to do more if Mr. Norton is found. The imaging costs about $22 per square kilometer, according to Mr. Edwards.
Donations for the imaging can be made to the Outpost Centers International in Apison, but donors must specify “Bob Norton Search” at the time of donation, according to the OCI Web site.
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
It was Mrs. Neiba Norton in the crash, Bob's wife, not Mrs. Edwards as accidentally stated. My husband and I know the Nortons well and I flew with Bob's father in Chiapas, Mexico many times on dangerous jungle medical missions. He finally crashed and died after 11 years of jungle flying. He and 3 pastors and a lay worker are buried on the side of a mountain where they crashed one Sabbath morning on their way to a baptism in the mountainous jungles of Chiapas. We are praying that Bob and rest will be found soon - by a miracle still alive. Such is sometimes the price of entire dedication to God. Roby A. Sherman, MD Wildwood, GA
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