Expert: PaulKoinig - 11/9/2005

Question
Hello, how are you going? My name is Christina and I live in Australia. Thank you for taking the time to answer this question. My boyfriend is sad about a problem and I was wondering if you may have any helpful advice you could offer,about if you think that perhaps dogs could be helpful in a situation like this. On Friday, my boyfriends boss (the man who owns the business where my boyfriend works) was driving in a helicopter in New Zealand, and the helicopter crashed and fell into the bushes and they can't find it. There are 20 rescue helicopters searching for him, and there are also some people on the ground who are looking for him, but nobody can find him, as the terrain is very bad- it is all very thick and dense trees and bushes, and apparantly the helicopters that are looking for him are finding it hard, because all they can see from the air is thick treetops. I was wondering if you would have any helpful advice on this topic, like maybe you know of a similar story where the person got found and survived that I could tell my boyfriend to cheer him up. Or maybe you know of some better and smarter ideas or ways to find a person who is lost in such a situation, like with dogs say.I was thinking that maybe in New Zealand where it is all happening they might not have as much smart and new technology and ideas like you have in America. I would really appreciate any advice you may have. Then I can tell my boyfriend, and he can pass any helpful tips or stories onto his bosses family and so on, to try to cheer them up a bit. If you want to read about the story you can do a google search on Michael Erceg (that is the name of my boyfriends boss who went missing), and all the information will come up as it appears in the newspapers in New Zealand. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this question, I do appreciate it a lot. Thank you once again, from Christina  

Answer
Christina, all I can say is I am deeply saddened for him. Maybe they can suggst utilizing infrared sensors to show heat if someone may still be alive. Dogs are a great tool but if the terrain is that difficult to manuever this will be a tough task. All I can say is let them use all the tools available and hope for the best.
Good Luck
Paul