Will They Ever Find Steve Fossett?

[dv8grl]

Steve Fossett's wife asks judge to declare her missing husband dead

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/01/17/2008-01-17_steve_fossetts_wife_asks_judge_to_declar.html?r ef=rss

CHICAGO - The wife of Chicago billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett wants a judge to declare her missing husband dead.

Peggy Fossett will have to testify, a judge said Wednesday, before he rules on her request.

Some of the people who searched rugged Nevada terrain for Fossett after his plane vanished in September also will have to take the stand, Judge Jeffrey A. Malak said.

Under state law, someone must be missing for seven years before being presumed dead. Malak, a veteran Chicago probate judge, said he has granted exceptions only twice, and in one case the person turned out to be alive.

Fossett, 63, renowned for his transglobal balloon flights and other colorful exploits, disappeared after taking off for a pleasure flight in a light plane from a small airstrip near Yerington, Nev.

A long search found no trace of him. The National Transportation Safety Board has issued a preliminary conclusion that Fossett was killed in a crash.

Peggy Fossett wants an order declaring her husband presumed dead so she can transfer his estate into a trust. Fossett made millions trading futures and options on Chicago exchanges.


I'm hoping hes hiding out in a secret underground lair somewhere....

[freeby4me]

At this point I doubt they'll find him at all. If he was dead, he would have been eaten on by now.

[Jolie Rouge]

:beamup

I voted no ... he has already beamed up to the Mothership with Elvis and James Dean.



Seriously, while they were looking for him, didn't they find several other lost and abandoned plane crashes, one from the 40's ??

[Shann]

this is so tragic, they searched for quite awhile and quite a distance before they called it off, you'd think they would have found him. I wonder why he didn't create a flight path before he left.. just incase. I do think they need to declare him dead, it's been long enough and if they find him, I doubt it will be alive. :(

[kyswpgrl]

I didn't realize it took 7 years to claim someone dead. They don't do that in the case of the WTC or war or anything like that.

[DBackFan]

I think he is alive somewhere...the greatest daring adventure yet. I may be wrong.

[DBackFan]

I didn't realize it took 7 years to claim someone dead. They don't do that in the case of the WTC or war or anything like that.

They have to have proof like body parts etc from WTC. If just presumed you have to wait the 7 years I think.

[Jolie Rouge]

Adventurer Steve Fossett declared dead
1 hour, 10 minutes ago

CHICAGO - Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead Friday, 5 months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane.

The self-made business tycoon, who in 2002 became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, was last seen Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif. He was 63.

His wife, Peggy V. Fossett, had him declared legally dead in Cook County Circuit Court as a step toward resolving the legal status of his estate. Judge Jeffrey Malak heard testimony Friday from Peggy Fossett, a family friend and a search-and-rescue expert before deciding there was sufficient evidence to declare him dead.

While flight records brought him his greatest fame, Fossett, who was paunchy for most of his life, also climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. (Everest did elude him.) With top notch endurance and concentration, he swam the English Channel and completed the Boston Marathon, the Ironman Triathlon, the Iditarod dog sled race, and, as part of a team, the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race.

"Steve's lived his life to the full, and he hasn't wasted a minute of his life," Fossett's rival-turned-comrade, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, had said as the search went on. "Everything he's done, he's taken a calculated risk with."

But Fossett was on a pleasure flight when he vanished and not looking for a dry lake bed to use as a surface on which to set the world land speed record, as was initially reported, according to his wife's petition.

Dozens of planes and helicopters spent more than a month searching the rugged western Nevada mountains before the effort was called off as winter approached.

The search area covered 20,000 square miles, and according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, about 15 to 20 private planes have vanished in the area since 1950. In 2005, wreckage was found in Kings Canyon National Park from a plane that went down during World War II.

A Stanford University graduate with a master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Fossett went to Chicago to work in investments and founded his own firm, Marathon Securities. The fortune he amassed allowed him to take his childhood fascination with exploration to extremes — he once said he drew up a list of feats he wanted to accomplish and started checking them off.

"Business is much easier for me," he told The Washington Post in a 1987 interview. "Sports is often very humiliating, because there are so many better athletes in these events. I would like to be the best in everything, but that's not possible. I risk humiliation because I have a genuine interest in participating."

In 2004, Fossett and his crew broke the round-the-world sailing record by six days. He even set world records for cross-country skis, according to his Web site.

But he was best known for his aerial exploits, first in ballooning, more recently in airplanes.

Beginning in the 1980s, teams led by Fossett, Branson and others used steadily improving technology to try to best each other and their predecessors in a series of ever-longer balloon flights. In January 1997 alone, there were three failed attempts, including a solo attempt by Fossett and a try by a crew led by Branson, the flashy founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways.

In 2002, after years of trying, Fossett became the first person to fly nonstop around the world alone in a balloon, setting the record on his sixth attempt. It took him two weeks to float 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere.

Three years later, in March 2005, he was first to fly a plane solo around the world without stopping or refueling, covering 23,000 miles in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer jet.

Solo flights represent the ultimate challenge, he told The Associated Press when the GlobalFlyer was introduced in 2004.

"They become more of an endurance endeavor, and become focused on the ability and the performance of a single person," he said.

Fossett made nearly as many headlines for his narrow escapes as he did for his successes. In 1998, during one of his solo around-the-world attempts, his balloon ripped during a storm, sending him plunging 29,000 feet into the Coral Sea. Falling at about 2,500 feet per minute, Fossett blacked out.

He said his next memory was "waking up with the capsule upside down, half full of water and on fire."

He was fished out by the crew of a schooner and was still on the ship when Branson called to invite him on another round-the-world attempt later that year, this time as part of a team. It ended in another dramatic rescue.

Branson, Fossett and Swedish balloonist Per Lindstrand made it more than halfway before poor wind conditions forced them to ditch in the shark-infested waters off Honolulu on Christmas Day 1998. The Coast Guard spent about $130,000 sending planes, helicopters and a boat to rescue the trio.

Fossett pressed on because of his thirst for accomplishments, and for all his close calls, those who knew him well said he wasn't reckless. Fossett once said the most dangerous thing he ever did was fall off his bicycle in Chicago without a helmet on.

"I'm doing these things for personal accomplishment, not the thrills," he told Stanford's alumni magazine in 1997, after his second around-the-world balloon attempt ended in India. "I don't do these things because I have a death wish."

Many of Fossett's recent adventures were financed with help from Branson, who is now teaming with renowned aerospace designer Burt Rutan to begin sending paying civilians into space within a few years.

As high as he flew, Fossett had no desire to take a ride into space.

"I really wouldn't want to go unless I get to be the pilot," Fossett told the AP in 2007. "I'm not a passenger type of person."

Born in Jackson, Tenn., in 1944, Fossett grew up in Garden Grove, Calif., and climbed his first mountain as a 12-year-old Boy Scout and got his pilot's license in college.

On a fraternity dare in 1965, his senior year at Stanford, he swam to Alcatraz and tried to hang a "Beat Cal" banner on the wall of the island prison, which had closed two years earlier.

"I got it up there, briefly," he told the alumni magazine. "Then a security guard pushed me offshore. Luckily, my frat brothers were following behind me in a fishing boat with a keg of beer."

Fossett was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July. He told a crowd gathered at the Dayton Convention Center in Ohio that he would continue flying and planned to go to Argentina later in the year in an effort to break a glider record.

"I imagine that when I'm 80 years old and sitting in a wheelchair that I might do something like take a remote control airplane and try and flight it around the world," he told CNN last year. "I plan to be setting and breaking records indefinitely."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080216/ap_on_re_us/obit_fossett;_ylt=AjDBvVH09xhabNAKISrauQKs0NUE

On the Net: http://www.stevefossett.com/

[dv8grl]

I'm still holding out hope, that he's in some secret underground lair.

[myspirit]

So sad.

[Jolie Rouge]

Snow gone, rugged Nevada search for Fossett resuming
By BRENDAN RILEY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jun 11, 2:56 PM ET

CARSON CITY, Nev. - The hunt for multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished in September after taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch, is resuming now that snow has melted in rugged mountains where he may have crashed.

The search won't match last year's, which covered about 20,000 square miles and involved a small air force of private and military planes, along with ground searchers and high-tech equipment. This time, two teams of volunteers will hike through a smaller area where the 63-year-old Fossett was last seen.

Previous searchers are providing maps and other detailed information on the harsh landscape the new teams plan to cover. "The more people we have, the more eyes and boots on the ground we have, the better our chances are of locating Mr. Fossett," said Gary Derks of the Nevada Department of Public Safety, who oversaw the 2007 hunt. "I wish them a lot of luck."

One team will be headed by Simon Donato, a Canadian geologist whose avocation is adventure racing through wilderness areas around the world. In late July, he'll bring as many as 10 other backcountry athletes, several with search-and-rescue expertise, to hike through a rugged area on the east slope of the Sierra where Fossett could have gone down. "It's going to be getting into those hard-to-reach areas and basically crossing them off the map," Donato said. "The best-case scenario is that we find him. The worst-case scenario — we're making it easier for people in the future to continue this."

Fossett, declared legally dead Feb. 15 by a judge in Illinois, "was a hero to so many people," Donato said. "He had a huge following. People loved him. They love adventure, and he was pushing the boundaries. Somebody like that just deserves to be found."

In late August, Robert Hyman, a Washington, D.C., investor and alpinist, plans to bring in a team of up to 15 climbers, mountain guides and others with backcountry expertise to check an area just east of where Donato will search.

Hyman said he will focus in and around the Wassuk Range, dominated by 11,239-foot-high Mount Grant. When Fossett took off Sept. 3 in a borrowed plane on what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight, he headed toward Lucky Boy Pass in the Wassuks. "He's obviously in an area that you just can't see from overhead, even with satellite imagery and high-altitude mapping and infrared and everything else," Hyman said.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, issued a statement that said that an analysis of high-tech mapping photography done in late 2007 was completed with no results. She's not involved in the upcoming activity and has "no further plans for additional searching," she said.

Fossett, an expert pilot, took off Sept. 3 from the rugged Flying M Ranch of his friend, hotel magnate Barron Hilton, about 80 miles southeast of Reno.

The land around Hilton's ranch is so rugged that for some a continued search may seem hopeless. While there are plenty of bare areas that seem to typify Nevada, there also are broad swaths of pine, juniper and aspen trees that could easily hide a plane.

It has on occasion taken decades to find missing people and planes crashed in the area on the Nevada-California line. "Don't give up hope. We waited 60 years or more," said Jeanne Pyle, who in mid-May was finally able to bury her brother, Ernest Munn, a World War II airman whose trainer plane disappeared in 1942 in the high Sierra about 100 miles from Hilton's ranch.

Backpackers told rangers last August they found an ice-entombed body on 13,710-foot Mount Mendel. In March, the Defense Department said forensic experts determined it was Munn, the long-missing brother of Pyle and her two sisters. He was the second of four airmen aboard the missing plane to be identified. "We often wondered if they would ever find him," said Pyle, 87. "Who would have ever thought about ice preserving him. It's just been a miracle."

___

On the Net: Adventure Science: http://adventurescience.ca/

The Explorers Club: http://www.explorers.org/

Steve Fossett Challenges: http://www.stevefossett.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080611/ap_on_re_us/fossett_search;_ylt=AiPJwS.300D3.3ccGc6SOgBH2ocA

[flute]

Well the wifey's in trouble if they find him alive later LOL

[Jolie Rouge]

Search for adventurer Fossett to resume in Nevada
By BRENDAN RILEY, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jul 14, 5:43 AM ET

BRIDGEPORT, Calif. - A 10-member team of elite athletes and expert mountaineers hopes to do what search planes and satellite imagery couldn't — find Steve Fossett's body.

The multimillionaire adventurer was declared legally dead in February, five months after he was last seen taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

The search team led by geologist and adventure racer Simon Donato will focus on remote, wooded areas near where the 63-year-old Fossett was last seen — areas that could have concealed wreckage from the crews of the many private and military planes that searched last year. "Whether we luck out and find the wreckage or not, at least our tracks will be preserved so that in the future if someone wants to give this a try they'll know where we already were and they can go to the next mountain range over," Donato said in a weekend interview at a base camp between the Bodie Hills and Sweetwater Mountains.

The search area, with peaks ranging from 10,000 to more than 11,000 feet in elevation, is just east of the even higher Sierra Nevada and about 110 miles south of Reno, Nev. Because the area is close to Hilton's ranch, where Fossett was staying, Donato believes it's the best place to search.

Search team members, who are paying their own way, began arriving Friday to set up camp. The team will continue its efforts through this coming Friday and possibly Saturday, covering 15 to 20 miles a day depending on the terrain, Donato said.

Previous searchers provided maps and other detailed information on the harsh landscape. With planes and high-tech equipment, about 20,000 square miles was covered from the air. Some ground searches also were conducted, and thousands of amateur volunteers scoured high-resolution satellite photographs over the Internet of the rugged Nevada landscape where Fossett disappeared.

Donato considers Fossett, declared legally dead Feb. 15 by an Illinois judge, a hero to many people and dismisses speculation that his disappearance might have been staged. "We're here on the premise that he did crash, unfortunately," he said. "I really respect him. He has done so much."

Donato, 31, won't be the only one looking for Fossett. In late August, Robert Hyman, a Washington, D.C., investor and alpinist, plans to bring in a team of up to 15 climbers, mountain guides and others with backcountry expertise to check an area just east of the section where Donato will search.

Hyman said he will focus in and around the Wassuk Range, dominated by 11,239-foot-high Mount Grant. When Fossett took off Sept. 3 from Hilton's ranch in a borrowed plane on what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight, he headed toward Lucky Boy Pass in the Wassuks.

The search area is so rugged that for some a continued search may seem hopeless. It has on occasion taken decades to find missing people and planes crashed in the area.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, issued a statement saying she's not involved in the latest search activity and has "no further plans for additional searching."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_re_us/fossett_search;_ylt=AkHfo_h6i717gda0VL3OLbys0NUE



Well the wifey's in trouble if they find him alive later LOL

'specailly if he hears THAT !

[Jolie Rouge]

New search starts for missing adventurer Fossett
By BRENDAN RILEY, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 8 minutes ago

HAWTHORNE, Nev. - A year after aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett vanished on a Labor Day solo flight over western Nevada, friends and admirers are waging a new search for some sign of him in an area of rugged mountains. Steep canyons and gulches choked by concealing trees and brush on the west slope of the Wassuk Range are being combed by 28 searchers headed by explorers Robert Hyman, Lew Toulmin and Bob Atwater.

They're relying in part on new information from another pilot who was in the area that day that alters earlier assumptions about Fossett's likely path on what was supposed to have been a short flight. He had flown over the area many times since the mid-1990s and once hiked to the top of the Wassuk Range's 11,239-foot Mount Grant.

"This is the right thing to do," Hyman said in a weekend interview at the search team's isolated camp. "Explorers don't leave fellow explorers lost. ... We want to find out what happened to our friend and colleague, no more and no less."

The main search area just west of Hawthorne and only 10 to 15 miles from the Flying M Ranch of longtime Fossett friend and wealthy hotel magnate Barron Hilton, where Fossett had borrowed a plane for his flight.

The terrain was flown over repeatedly last fall in what was described as the largest aerial search for a downed plane in U.S. history — the Nevada National Guard and the Civil Air Patrol scoured 20,000 square miles — and also was extensively searched on the ground.

However, Hyman said there's a lot of area that didn't get close scrutiny.

"While I feel he's under our nose here, he's in an area that's extremely hard to get to. It's the vertical terrain, it's the dark terrain, and it's the trees, the vegetation," Hyman said.

"If that aircraft didn't go straight down and kind of angled in under a stand of pine trees, it's going to take someone physically walking upon that scene to find it," said Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford.

"It's hard to believe in this day and age that someone could disappear like this — until you go up in an aircraft and look at how rough the terrain is. It's absolutely amazing," said Sanford.

The difficulty of finding Fossett's wreck prompts comparisons to pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared on an around-the-world flight attempt in 1937.

"They're both incredibly inspiring people," Toulmin said, adding: "If we don't find Steve Fossett, people are going to be coming out here for the next 50 years until he is found."

Fossett, 63, was declared legally dead by a judge in February. The multimillionaire's widow, Peggy Fossett, issued a statement supporting the latest effort, one of three private, self-funded searches this year. She spent $1 million on last year's search efforts. That's in addition to more than $1.6 million in costs to Nevada state agencies.

Toulmin and Hyman are hopeful about their efforts — which began Aug. 23 and will continue until Sept. 10 — because they were able to narrow their search thanks to new information from a local pilot who was flying over the area the same day Fossett vanished.

Toulmin said that pilot confirmed his flight path appeared to match a radar trace previously believed to have been made by Fossett's plane. The initial assumption prompted speculation that Fossett had flown farther east, possibly circling around Mount Grant. But with the new information, Hyman said his team was able to focus on a smaller area to the west.

Hyman also has utilized a new NASA computer program that helps to visualize the land under a plane's route.

He said he and Toulmin had found accounts of crashes of similar small planes that ended up as wreckage no bigger than "a window-unit air conditioner or the size of a shopping cart or a washing machine. It could just be scattered debris."

Canadian geologist and adventure racer Simon Donato led a weeklong search in July, and says that if the current effort in the Wassuk Range isn't successful he's already making plans for another search next year. Separately, Mike Larson and Kelly Stephenson of Carson City have been riding ATVs and hiking southwest of Hawthorne for several months on their days off.

Fossett, who made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets, set records in airplanes, balloons, gliders and boats, was the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 2007.

He also swam the English Channel, completed an Ironman Triathlon, competed in the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed some of the world's best-known peaks.

Fossett pressed on because of his thirst for accomplishments, and had many close calls, but people who knew him well said he wasn't reckless. Fossett once said the most dangerous thing he ever did was fall off a bicycle when he wasn't wearing a helmet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_re_us/fossett_search;_ylt=Au1qiRo3wYUakBKMzzD0eQys0NUE

On the Net:

Explorers Club: http://www.explorers.org/

Steve Fossett Challenges: http://www.stevefossett.com/

[Jolie Rouge]

Possible Fossett items found in California
2 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081001/ap_on_re_us/fossett_search;_ylt=Ak0R3XSi0K2HEPlLKuCklPOs0NUE

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - Authorities in rugged eastern California say a hiker has found items possibly belonging to missing adventurer Steve Fossett.

Inyo National Forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said Wednesday that a hiker found the items near the town of Mammoth Lakes.

Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

In 2002, Fossett became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon.

[atprm]

think they have as much chance finding him as they do finding Jimmy Hoffa's body.

[Jolie Rouge]

Possible Fossett ID, other items found in Calif.
17 minutes ago

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - A hiker in rugged eastern California found an ID and other items possibly belonging to Steve Fossett, the adventurer missing more than a year since going on a pleasure flight in a borrowed plane, authorities said Wednesday.

The items were found in the area of the town of Mammoth Lakes, Inyo National Forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said. "We have some ID that has the name Steve Fossett," Mammoth Lakes police Investigator Crystal Schafer said. "They were turned in to us and are in our possession."

A hiker who found the ID and some cash came to the police department office Tuesday, Police Chief Randy Schienle told CNN. "The ID is well weathered," Schienle said. "We have heavy winters up here."

A sweatshirt was also found in the area, but no wreckage was located, he said.

Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February.

This year's biggest search for Fossett focused on Nevada's Wassuk Range, more than 50 miles north of Mammoth Lakes. That search ended last month.

Mammoth Lakes is a community at an elevation of more than 7,800 feet on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, where peaks top 13,000 feet.

Fossett made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets. He gained worldwide fame for more than 100 attempts and successes in setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 2007.

He also swam the English Channel, completed an Ironman Triathlon, competed in the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.



Hikers find Steve Fossett belongings
53 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hikers in northern California have found clothing and personal items possibly belonging to millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who went missing a year ago, CNN reported on Wednesday.

Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Randy Schienle told CNN that a sweatshirt and other identification possibly with Fossett's name on it had been found by hikers in the area.

Fossett, 63, vanished in his airplane after taking off in the Nevada desert in September 2007.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081001/us_nm/us_pople_fossett;_ylt=AqyuMKw5XhAywK_7SQFa4z5H2ocA

[DBackFan]

Seems just a but odd that his personal effects would be there and no wreckage nearby. I was going to post this earlier but had to run out and you beat me Jolie..lol

I still have a feeling there was some funny business.

[dv8grl]

I still have a feeling there was some funny business.
Me too!

[LuvBigRip]

CNN) -- Authorities found the plane Steve Fossett was flying when he disappeared last year, but they have not found the remains of the millionaire adventurer, the Madera County, California, sheriff said Thursday.

"They did locate an aircraft which we have now confirmed is the one Steve Fossett was flying when it disappeared last Labor Day," Sheriff John Anderson told reporters at a news conference.

He further said that searchers found no remains and the crash appeared "so severe I doubt someone would've walked away from it."

The sheriff's department said Wednesday that wreckage was spotted during an aerial search of the area where hikers had discovered identification with the missing aviator's name.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it was dispatching investigators to the crash site.

"The Bellanca 8KCAB (N240R) has been missing since September 3, 2007, when the pilot departed Yerington, Nevada for a local flight. The wreckage was located at about 10,000 feet of elevation in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes, California," an NTSB statement released Thursday said.

Hours before Wednesday's aerial sighting, hikers found cash and identification cards with Fossett's name. Watch police chief describe hiker's discovery »

"We're not certain that it belongs to Steve Fossett, but it certainly has his name on the I.D." said Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Randy Schienle.

A Chicago probate court judge declared Fossett dead in February.

Fossett was last seen the morning of September 3, 2007, when he took off from the Flying-M Ranch outside Minden, Nevada. He said he was taking a pleasure flight over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in a single-engine plane.

He was carrying a bottle of water and had no parachute.

He had planned to fly over the Nevada desert for two to three hours and was expected to return for lunch at the ranch, owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

At 3 p.m., when he had not returned, a search began that ultimately included thousands of volunteers, hundreds of officials and dozens of aircraft that scoured an area more than twice the size of New Jersey.

The search was officially suspended on October 2, 2007.


Fossett made his money in the financial services industry, but is renowned for his daredevil exploits, which include non-stop, round-the-world trips aboard a balloon, a fixed-wing plane and a boat.

He was the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon, accomplishing the feat in 2002, and he was the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling, which he did in 2005. He also set world records in round-the-world sailing and cross-country skiing

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/02/steve.fossett.search/index.html

[Jolie Rouge]

Sheriff: Search teams find Fossett wreckage
By TRACIE CONE and JULIANA BARBASSA, AP Writers
25 minutes ago

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - Searchers found the wreckage of Steve Fossett's plane in California's rugged Sierra Nevada just over a year after the millionaire adventurer vanished on a solo flight, and the craft appears to have hit the mountainside head-on, authorities said Thursday.

Crews conducting an aerial search late Wednesday spotted what turned out to be the wreckage in the Inyo National Forest near the town of Mammoth Lakes, Sheriff John Anderson said. They confirmed around 11 p.m. that the tail number found matched Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane, he said.

Anderson said no human remains were found in the wreckage. "It's quite often if you don't find remains within a few days, because of animals, you'll find nothing at all," Anderson said.

Teams led by the sheriff's department would continue the search for remains Thursday, while the National Transportation Safety Board was en route to probe the cause of the crash, he said.

Most of the plane's fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away at an elevation of 9,700 feet, authorities said. "It was a hard-impact crash, and he would've died instantly," said Jeff Page, emergency management coordinator for Lyon County, Nev., who assisted the search.

After a hiker found identification belonging to Fossett earlier in the week, searchers began combing the rugged terrain on Wednesday. The wreckage was found about a quarter-mile from where hiker Preston Morrow made his discovery Monday.

The IDs provided the first possible clue about Fossett's whereabouts since he disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. "I remember the day he crashed, there were large thunderheads over the peaks around us," Mono County Undersheriff Ralph Obenberger said, gesturing to the mountains flanking Mammoth Lakes.

Aviators had previously flown over Mammoth Lakes, about 90 miles south of the ranch, in the search for Fossett, but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane.

The most intense searching was concentrated north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.

A judge declared Fossett, 63 when he disappeared, legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles.

Fossett made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets. He gained worldwide fame for more than 100 attempts and successes in setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 2007.

He also swam the English Channel, completed an Ironman Triathlon, competed in the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081002/ap_on_re_us/fossett_search;_ylt=AuyX1Qp59YyP0GBz8WoMiNes0NUE

[LuvBigRip]

Federal investigators say they found body parts amid the wreckage of missing adventurer Steve Fossett's airplane in the mountains of eastern California.

The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, said Thursday that searchers found enough at the crash site of Fossett's plane to provide coroners with DNA. They were found amid a field of debris that stretched 400 feet long and 150 feet wide in a steep section of the mountain range.

"We found human remains, but there's very little. Given the length of time the wreckage has been out there, it's not surprising there's not very much," said National Transportation Safety Board acting Chairman Mark Rosenker. "I'm not going to elaborate on what it is."



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