aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Fun Google flyover photos thwarted by air traffic control
Scores of Sydneysiders who took up Google’s challenge to make a spectacle of themselves in an aerial photo shoot staged over the city on Australia Day are likely to be disappointed.
A plane chartered by Google to take the images never made it over some of the designated areas or arrived hours later than expected by which time, many of those who had been waiting below had moved on.
The high-resolution images were to be added in about four to six weeks’ time to the popular online mapping service Google Maps
But the flight plan was hastily changed on Friday morning after Sydney air traffic control denied the twin-engine Aero Commander permission to fly over parks and beaches in inner Sydney and the east due to air safety concerns [...]
Among those missing out on the photo opportunity of a lifetime was a company that had spent $10,000-plus on a sign, an environmental group which organised 200 supporters to form themselves into a slogan on Bondi Beach and a man who drove from Wollongong to Sydney with a message that he hoped would help win back his estranged wife.
“The positive public response to this initiative has been overwhelming and we are very grateful to everyone who took part,” said Lars Rasmussen, the head of engineering at Google Australia. “While we made every effort to capture as much as we could on the day, unfortunately some people may be disappointed.
He said Google would shortly update a web page to show where and when the plane had been able to take high resolution imagery.
The Sydney flyover was to be the first time the internet giant had attempted such an exercise on this scale. Usually photos are taken without people being aware that it’s happening.
Meanwhile, Microsoft got in. They used a helicopter.
