Audio clip
Bob Ewards
One year after Adventist missionary Bob Norton's plane disappeared into the South American jungle, his friends continue searching for him with a fresh expedition planned for March.
"All I know is: The search goes on," said McMinnville, Tenn., resident Bob Edwards, who has spearheaded the search efforts. "My gut feeling is we need to keep looking as long as we are able."
Mr. Norton, his wife, Neiba, and the plane's five other occupants last were heard from on Feb. 16, 2009, when they were in Venezuela near the country's borders with Guyana and Brazil, according to mission group officials.
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Contributed Photo: Tuesday was one the one year anniversary of when Sand Mountain resident Bob Norton disappeared in the South American jungles. Norton, an Adventist missionary pilot, was last seen taking off in Venezuela to take a woman to the hospital. Norton is pictured with his wife, Neiba in the photograph.
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. Friends said Mr. Norton was allowed to stay because he has dual citizenship through marriage.
The missing pilot's mother, Nytta Norton, said not finding her son has been tough, but she said God knows the truth and that's enough for her.
"We're just where we were a year ago," she said. "We don''t know (where he is), but God does."
Her husband and Mr. Norton's father, Elwin Norton, also was a missionary pilot before he died in a crash in Mexico.
Mr. Edwards, who works as an engineer in LaFayette, Ga., launched the search team shortly after his friend went missing.
Volunteers from as far away as Alaska combed high-resolution satellite photos for irregularities in the Venezuelan jungle canopy that may have been signs of a plane crash. The group relayed GPS coordinates for these points of interest to volunteers in Venezuela.
Four people, including a camera crew filming a documentary, are headed back to South America for a week at the end of March to resume checking the points of interest, Mr. Edwards said.
"There are tens of thousands of acres that are possible here," Mr. Edwards said. "We're still looking for any clues."
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 ...
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