Scientist Missing

[sarongsong]

Seemingly without a trace:
October 24, 2006
Piotr Drabik is described as a gifted scientist, a 34-year-old Pole temporarily working in Canada...On September 1, Drabik was supposed to fly to Salt Lake City, switch planes and travel to Hawaii. Authorities believe he landed here [Salt Lake City] from Edmonton, Alberta, but then the trail turns cold...the University of Alberta expected him back within two weeks. Authorities were told of his disappearance September 26..."The airport was apparently the last known place that he was"... Star-Bulletin (http://starbulletin.com/2006/10/24/news/story14.html)

[DaveC426913]

Not to belittle the peril, but...

So?

If he were a janitor, would the disappearance be less mysterious?

[Doodler]

Not particularly, except that his disappearance would have a significantly lesser likelihood of appearing on a science board.

[Sam5]

Not particularly, except that his disappearance would have a significantly lesser likelihood of appearing on a science board.

Lol, Yeah, I noticed over on the Janitor Board that janitors are disappearing all the time!

Sometimes the cops find their dust pans and whisk brooms abandoned in regional airports, and sometimes they don’t find any clues at all.

[hhEb09'1]

Lol, Yeah, I noticed over on the Janitor Board that janitors are disappearing all the time!Probably just a custodial battle

[Blob]

Marimow emphasised to the interns that there is no right or wrong in journalistic judgment. There is no mathematical equation to the news-worthiness of a story. He believed that we should trust ourinstincts and realise that there will always be different conclusions regarding a story.

http://www.npr.org/about/nextgen/internedition/sum06/docs/billmarimowbrownbag.pdf

[pghnative]

Not to belittle the peril, but...

So?

If he were a janitor, would the disappearance be less mysterious?Yeah, but the janitor stories tend to get swept under the rug.

[sarongsong]

...So?...Well, he's at least #79...to those keeping score:
List of Dead and Missing Scientists (http://www.watchermagazine.com/?p=1497)---WatcherMagazine

[Hans]

people die each year, one would suspect a few scientists in the mix. If Scientists weren't dying that would be news.

[MG1962A]

List of Dead and Missing Scientists---WatcherMagazine


Hey number one on the list got killed with a champagne bottle - Way to go dude :shifty:

[Gerrsun]

but in fact have faked their deaths so they can work on their TRUE project. All part of a grand conspiracy to bring about world peace by creating a giant 'fake' psionic alien and dropping it on New York.

I know this is true, I read it in a book.

[Forskern]

Building a giant 'fake' psionic alien is simple. The real problem is convincing Dr. Manhattan that it is actually a good idea :razz:

[Josh]

I know this is true, I read it in a book.

Gerrsun, you can't believe everything you read in books.

The internet on the other hand ...

[BigDon]

It seems an aweful lot of those scientists who don't die in vehicle accidents get stabbed to death.

[Fazor]

It seems an aweful lot of those scientists who don't die in vehicle accidents get stabbed to death.


...I guess spouses can only take so many "so a carbon atom and a helium atom walk into a bar" jokes before they go insane.

[beskeptical]

Sarongsong, in order for this list to have any meaning, you need to know how many scientists make up this population and what is the rate of death or disappearance in that group compared to the rate in a similar group the same size. I would think the population of scientists is very large and the traumatic deaths and disappearances of the people listed on the web site are no greater than would be expected in any similar group of people. Homicide, suicide, and accidents are among the leading causes of deaths especially in men of middle age or older.

Other than the dramatic descriptions of the work these folks were doing, there doesn't seem to be much connecting them to eachother.

Sigh...forgot which forum this was. Once again, I can't talk about the topic because heaven forbid the PC police will be here to report disorder.

Anyway, there have been real incidences of CIA kidnappings recently that were in the front page news. I'll leave it at that so the forum readers aren't completely in the dark about what I had to say. My point was we should keep an open mind here even though it's easy to see this as far fetched. It may not be so impossible as that. But that still doesn't mean I see any evidence in this list of people and events on the web page. And the faked deaths has little credibility considering what is in the news reports. There would need to be more evidence to consider these are all faked deaths. Usually a faked death someone disappears off a boat or something where there is no body found.

[sarongsong]

...My point was we should keep an open mind here even though it's easy to see this as far fetched...Oh, I quite agree; it's just one of those subjects that interest me and track in a tickler file. Having flown to Hawaii many times alone, the OT especially grabbed my attention and hope the fellow is found OK. (Glad you're back! http://www.bautforum.com/images/icons/icon7.gif )

[Tunga]

Scientist missing seemingly without a trace!

I would expect traces to exist all over the place. Airplane records, credit card records, internet communications, cell phone records, rental car records, hotel records, baggage claim records. If someone was actively searching in today's world, I think he might show up rather quickly.

From my perspective for an individual to disappear from a Salt Lake City airport terminal while in transit seems rather unlikely unless the individual had a hand in his disappearance. An air terminal is an unlikely place for a kidnapping. It is also unlikely that the individual got on the wrong flight. The exception - if the flight arrived late and the individual was unable to make the connecting flight. That would open up a full range of scenarios. That would be my first thought.

After reading the original article, Piotr was really looking forward to his trip to Hawaii.
His profile is available at:
http://www.stadion.com/author_drabikp.html
Here is his photograph:
http://www.molokaitimes.com/articles/61013194724.asp
__________________________________________________ _____
Blogs indicated:
SkyWest is a Delta partner, if you book through the airline you have to book with Delta (but you fly SkyWest). Delta’s policies apply.

Apart from that, Drabik would have gone through the VISIT procedure, which requires all visitors to the USA (unless those with immigrant visas) to be photographed and have their fingerprints taken at their port of entry.

So that might also have been helpful in determining if Drabik = ‘Al Doe’.

Travellers arriving in the US by plane who travel on to another US destination (in Drabik’s case first stop Salt Lake City, final destination Hawaii) have to check their own luggage through.
This means that after arriving in Salt Lake City, Drabik went through the border check (VISIT procedure, passport check) and customs. He would then pick up his own luggage at the baggage claim, and deliver it to the designated place for his connecting flight.
They only take your luggage there, and don’t check any I.D. etcetera. Also his luggage would have been marked in Edmonton as destination Honolulu, Hawaii.

So you see it would have been very easy for Drabik to get his luggage and just leave the SLC airport with it.
Quote: “He never boarded the Delta flight,” Maui County Police Sgt. Ken Prather said Friday. “His baggage had been checked, though.”
His baggage had been checked because is was checked in Edmonton, even though the passenger has to manually transfer it to their connecting flight himself. If Drabik didn’t do that, there is nobody who would have known he’d picked up his stuff and left the SLC airport.
__________________________________________________ _________
They also point to the fact that he was seen on the flight going to Hawaii by the passenger seated next to him.

Anyways, it seems like an interesting mystery to solve.

[Fazor]

Well obviously the most logical explination is that he went to use the restroom during the flight and accidently flushed himself out of the plane!

I think most likely he didn't want to be found for some reason or another, likely related to his personal life and not the fact that he's a scientist. It's easy to disappear if you want to. But it's hard not to imagine some other more elaborate and perhaps sinister scenario just because the thought of scientists being "silenced" has been engrained by popular literature and media for so long.

[BioSci]

From: http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=24101

While police said Drabik was last known to be in Utah, family members believe he had planned to go to Molokai to climb cliffs. Drabik is also a scuba diver, family members said.

Perhaps one should look at the base of the cliffs? (or pacific ocean)

[sarongsong]

October 25, 2006
...a passenger on the Hawaii-bound Delta Airlines flight positively identified Drabik, so it appears he arrived at his destination...[a friend said] Delta Airlines wasn't helpful either in trying to track whether Drabik actually made it onto the flight to Honolulu... CANOE (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2006/10/25/pf-2133678.html)Molokai is big, rugged and relatively sparsley populated...and would have required a shuttle flight from Honolulu.

[Tunga]

Piotr Drabik set out from Edmonton, Canada on September 1 for a vacation trip to Hawaii. His itinerary was SkyWest Airlines flight 3828 to Salt Lake City International Airport in Utah and then Delta Air Lines flight 1825 to Honolulu. His return trip was planned for September 11. But he disappeared off the face of the earth.

Authorities believe that Drabik may be on Kaua‘i because a record check with a local airline indicated that upon his arrival in the islands on Sept. 1, he purchased a one-way ticket and boarded a plane headed to Kaua‘i at 4 p.m. that same afternoon.

The Polish Embassy believes Piotr Drabik made it to Hawaii based on the flight manifest, passenger statements and a female witness who reportedly sat next to him on the flight to Hawaii. A male witness has also indicated that he saw and talked to Drabik on the flight to Hawaii.

Apparently quite a bit of time was unduely lost in the search because Delta security indicated that Drabik was not on the Honolulu flight and he had never used his boarding pass in Salt Lake City. As a result, the trail has turned cold.

Drabik is a 34 year old white male, 6 feet 1 inch tall, weighing about 175 pounds. He has brown eyes and short cropped dark brown hair. He is tanned and has a muscular build. He has a goatee, mustache and an exotic bird-like cross tattoo on his upper left arm. He was last seen wearing a bright green shirt and jacket, dark green pants. He was carrying a red and black backpack and trek poles.

It is not unusual for him to have no hotel/rental car trail because he often prefers to camp outdoors.

He was very excited about this trip. He planned on scuba diving, hiking through the jungle on one of the islands, visiting a volcano and the seaside cliffs on Molokai. He apparently didn't have any vacation time left so he kept his plans secret from his employer. Before he left, he told his coworkers that he would be taking a few days off because of illness. He told his ex-wife that he was going away on a business trip.

Last December he told his ex-wife that he was going to visit his sick mother in Poland. But in reality, he took a stopover and trekked the Himalayas first.

The trail seems to lead to Hawaii but Hawaii is a big place to find a lost soul.

[Fazor]

Before he left, he told his coworkers that he would be taking a few days off because of illness. He told his ex-wife that he was going away on a business trip.

Last December he told his ex-wife that he was going to visit his sick mother in Poland. But in reality, he took a stopover and trekked the Himalayas first.


Well, this just shows he wasn't being truthful, and didn't really want anyone to know where he was going. Sounds to *me* like me met some 14 year old girl (or boy?) on myspace ;). Who knows. Wouldn't so much fear for his saftey as wonder what he's up to.

[Tunga]

I would probably fear for his safety. Hiking in the wilderness can hold many unexpected dangers. If he is alone and did not let anyone know his day-to-day itinerary, he could easily encounter a life-and-death situation.

I have seen an individual break their leg only a few feet from camp while going down the Grand Canyon on a rubber raft. I remember a 5 day hike in Baja California. The last day I hiked 25 miles though a desert without water. It was the first time I experienced heat stroke, where your sweat glands shut down. Compared to the others in my party, I was in fairly good shape at the end of the hike. Or what about when you wake up in your sleeping bag and feel something moving which turns out to be a rattlesnake. Consider that I am a couch potato compared to this guy.

[sarongsong]

...Sounds to *me* like me met some 14 year old girl (or boy?) on myspace ;). Who knows. Wouldn't so much fear for his saftey as wonder what he's up to.Naw, outdoorspeople, in general, tend not to be that way. I suspect some sort of run-in with the locals, at this point.

[sarongsong]

Just keeping track:
January 30, 2007
The U.S. Coast Guard is trying to solve a mystery of the disappearance of San Francisco Microsoft computer scientist, Jim Gray, who went sailing alone this past Sunday. So far, no sign of him or his yacht...was awarded the Turing Award [1998]...His work paved the way for the ATM and online airline ticketing... KGO-TV (http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4984773)

[Irishman]

Tunga said:
The last day I hiked 25 miles though a desert without water. It was the first time I experienced heat stroke, where your sweat glands shut down. Compared to the others in my party, I was in fairly good shape at the end of the hike.

Sounds like you're a candidate for the show, I Shouldn't Be Alive. One not too long ago talked about Boy Scouts hiking into the Grand Canyon by an unmarked trail, and between the excessive heat and lack of rainfall leaving expected water sources missing, they ended up with a several cases of heat exhaustion, and one of heat stroke that ended in death. There was also the incredible act of three boys free climbing a cliff without ropes or safety gear while suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration.

[01101001]

Piotr Drabik set out from Edmonton, Canada on September 1 for a vacation trip to Hawaii.

Well, here's the answer for the original post: KITV Honolulu, Polish Man Missing In Hawaii (http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/10864505/detail.html)


Josef Drabik sought help from a psychic in Poland who told him that his son got lost in Kokee and that he may have fallen off a cliff and into the water.

Josef spoke to Kauai police Saturday who need fresh leads to know where to focus their efforts.

"They really don't know what to do or where to start the search because they don't know if the psychic is right -- or whoever is right, and so they don't know what to do," said Josef's interpreter Irina Taylor.

Oh, I guess psychic evidence is not the answer.


The family said they plan to make a final aerial search for Piotr on Sunday.

If anyone has information that may help find him they are asked to call the Kauai police.

Good luck to him and his family.

Another article, The Honolulu Advertiser: Missing hiker's father clings to hope on trip to Kaua'i sites (http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070128/NEWS0102/701280361/1004/NEWS)


[A]irport security cameras show that Drabik did make it to Kaua'i.

The family also recently learned Drabik bought a book on Kaua'i over the Internet, and had expressed interest in a hike near Koke'e.

That sounds like a better reason to search near Koke'e than some invention of a psychic.

[BigDon]

Not to be trite, but ten bucks says he wandered into somebody's pot farm and a couple of islanders hucked him off a cliff like that editor from National Lampoon.

[01101001]

Just keeping track: [Jim Gray]

Contra Costa Times: Coast Guard to call off sailor search (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/16593256.htm)


Despite unusually calm weather, searchers have exhausted any area Jim Gray could have drifted or sailed after leaving for a solo sailing trip Sunday to scatter his mother's ashes at sea, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
[...]
Searchers have covered 40,000 square miles from Monterey Bay to Oregon and more than 140 miles out to sea but have found no trace of the longtime sailor.
[...]
Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Amy Marrs called Gray's disappearance a mystery because the weather was good, he was in good health and the boat was equipped with radios, flares and an emergency beacon.

[ArgoNavis]

Or what about when you wake up in your sleeping back and feel something moving which turns out to be a rattlesnake.

So what is the etiquette when you wake up in the morning in bed with a rattler?

[Forskern]

So what is the etiquette when you wake up in the morning in bed with a rattler?

At least let it stay for breakfast :/

[sarongsong]

One Marine's method:
...My first thought was, "Oh my God, I laid down on a rattlesnake."...Time for action. I carefully unzipped my bag as far as I could without raising up, gathered my courage and in one motion, sprang to my feet, moved to about 10 feet away... OO-RAH (http://www.oo-rah.com/Store/seastories/ss53.asp)http://www.bautforum.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Blob]

A cargo plane, a helicopter and six patrol boats have been scouring the Pacific since Monday for Jim Gray, who helped develop the technology behind popular computer mapping programs like Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-emea-uk-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20earth).
The Coast Guard searched the waters off Northern California on Wednesday for the award-winning computer scientist missing since a weekend sailing trip to scatter his mother's ashes at sea.

Read more (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/missing.sailor.ap/index.html)

(Ed - Oh, the irony...)

[Doodler]

Mission accomplished.

[BigDon]

We've just recently had two full pods of orcas (30+ each) move down to the Bay Area from Washington state. They sometimes mistake yachts for whales and sink them by ramming. I know of it happening three times in my lifetime.

[sarongsong]

That might explain no distress signal detected.

[The Bad Astronomer]

I don't know Jim Gray personally, but he basically invented SkyServer, which is the software the Sloan Digital Sky Survey uses to serve up their images. He was on a proposal my group had to NASA on a new satellite; we wanted to use SkyServer tech to compare SDSS data with the satellite's.

That satellite was not picked by NASA, so we never got to do the project. Still, when I heard his name on the radio yesterday as being missing I got a weird chill. When I got in I checked my archived mail, and sure enough I had sent him some notes. What an odd feeling. It doesn't look like they're going to find him, which is a just awful.

[PhantomWolf]

We had a yacht off the coast here that hit a whale, luckily it wasn't a mono-hull, and so even though it filled with water it didn't sink, allowing the guy onboard to get off a distress call, but had it not had the bouyancy of the other hulls.....

[jami cat]

...I guess spouses can only take so many "so a carbon atom and a helium atom walk into a bar" jokes before they go insane.

But, wouldn't that usually end on a more positive note? :o

[Irishman]

ArgoNavis said:
So what is the etiquette when you wake up in the morning in bed with a rattler?

I've seen some Rattlesnake Roundup video on TV. One of the fun attractions is putting live rattlesnakes in a sleeping bag with a person, then letting the person climb out on their own. The trick is that as long as the rattlesnake is inside the bag, it treats it like it would its den, where snakes pile up and coil around each other. So you carefully and slowly extricate yourself from the bag without pulling the snake to the opening.

Not saying I'd have the wherewithal or calmness to handle it, but that was demonstrated on the program.

[beskeptical]

We've just recently had two full pods of orcas (30+ each) move down to the Bay Area from Washington state. They sometimes mistake yachts for whales and sink them by ramming. I know of it happening three times in my lifetime.That's odd, I've been in WA State near Puget Sound for 30 years and don't recall a single news account of such an event. I wonder if you could dig up any account of one of these incidents besides your recollection?

Does anyone else know of any similar events?

[beskeptical]

We had a yacht off the coast here that hit a whale, luckily it wasn't a mono-hull, and so even though it filled with water it didn't sink, allowing the guy onboard to get off a distress call, but had it not had the bouyancy of the other hulls.....
This is the more typical scenario, the boats hit the whales, not the other way around.

[sarongsong]

...Does anyone else know of any similar events?Several examples here (http://www.google.com/search?q=whale+sinks+boat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).

[PhantomWolf]

This is the more typical scenario, the boats hit the whales, not the other way around.

We've had another one hit something just last night, though this time the culprit is likely a shipping container and the damage, while enough for a distress signal and help required, wasn't quite sever enough to cause the loss of the boat. Had it taken the keel off though....

[beskeptical]

Several examples here (http://www.google.com/search?q=whale+sinks+boat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).Not a single one of those stories is about Orca whales, Sarong.

[DaveC426913]

This is the more typical scenario, the boats hit the whales, not the other way around.
The Orcas keep pleading self defense and get off scot free.

[Captain Kidd]

While not sleeping with a rattler, my father worked with one next to his foot for an unknown amount of time. He was at Big Bend National Park at the time and had his door open for airflow. Apparently the rattler decided to come in to cool off and that right next his foot was the best place to lay.

It would have gotten interesting had my dad shifted or gotten up.

Fortunately his boss came in, saw it, and swept it out with a broom. It didn't appreciate being swept all that much, but brooms are amazingly resistant to rattler venom.

[Swift]

Apparently there is still a private effort search for Jim Gray still going on.
LINK (http://origin.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_5160491)

[sarongsong]

Not a single one of those stories is about Orca whales, Sarong.similar 1. Nearly corresponding; having a general likeness... http://bautforum.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Irishman]

beskeptical, actually, the first linked article was about orcas.
http://sailing.about.com/b/a/215996.htm

About 450 miles due north of the Big Island, she inadvertently got between a mother and her calf when encountering a pod of orcas.

[beskeptical]

Which is a bit different than the claim Orca pods attack boats, Irish.

The other whale species have their own specific behavior, Sarong. I believe in those cases there may be more territorial activity going on.

In my post I was specifically addressing:

Originally Posted by BigDon:
We've just recently had two full pods of orcas (30+ each) move down to the Bay Area from Washington state. They sometimes mistake yachts for whales and sink them by ramming. I know of it happening three times in my lifetime.

That's odd, I've been in WA State near Puget Sound for 30 years and don't recall a single news account of such an event. I wonder if you could dig up any account of one of these incidents besides your recollection?

Does anyone else know of any similar events? However, I appreciate the contributions.

[BigDon]

Beskeptical, these were all in print I'm afraid. Two were in Southern Ocean waters during various long distance yacht races. I was just saying it happens not that it happens often. Heck, my uncle used to go fishing for salmon off the coast of Washinton State in a 15' aluminum rowboat. He said you knew it was time to go in when the orcas would jump over the boat. But he always came back in. Me, I'm happy when I have a big, fat aircraft carrier under me when I go out on the ocean.

[sarongsong]

It's not only orcas that migrate through the area in question; gray whales and blue whales do, too. Additional navigational hazards are elusive giant waves:
...The Potato Patch is the northern lobe of the Great Bar sandbar, which curves down from the Marin Headlands to the middle of Ocean Beach, surrounding the Golden Gate like a giant left parenthesis...it's a formidable shipping hazard, sinking numerous ships and creating general havoc for sailors for hundreds of years...the Great Bar is unbuffered by any other landmass, it receives an incredible amount of energy from open sea swells, especially in winter...waves...can reach up to 80 to 100 feet in height roar in from the north... SF Gate (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/30/CMGAPJPTCO1.DTL&type=printable)

[Irishman]

beskeptical, the article was vague on the reason the orca attacked their boat. They were speculating, which is clear in the next sentence I didn't quote. The point is the orca attacked and sunk their boat. You seemed to be doubting that orcas attack boats. That link is evidence of one instance. So is your doubt not that orcas sink boats, but the reason they sink boats? I'm confused.

Also, could BigDon not be speculating about the explanation for the instances he's aware of? He knows they happened, and is assuming the orcas think they're whales, because why else would they attack?

Captain Kidd, while not rattlesnakes, I have had three known instances of nearly stepping on copperheads. Fortunately they tend to be more prone to hiding than striking.

[01101001]

Friends of Microsoft Engineer [Jim Gray] Suspend Search (http://www.nbc11.com/news/11039377/detail.html)


Friends of a renowned computer scientist who disappeared off the California coast said Friday they were suspending their search for him and his sailboat.
[...]
Gray's friends and colleagues had used satellite imagery, collected wind and current data and arranged for searches from Oregon to Mexico's Baja California coast. They also walked the coastline and distributed posters of Jim and his boat, but didn't find any clues to his whereabouts.

[BigDon]

Well, I was just talking about the Polish guy with a friend last night who frequently travels to Hawaii. I've been there seven times myself. We both agree. The locals did him. There is a lot of places in Hawaii where "strangers" ain't welcome. So much so that, when you go to the wrong places, especially places like the west side of Oahu, guys will put down what they are doing, walk out enmass into the street and tell you you are "not welcome".