Adventurer Steve Fossett Declared Dead

[LaoPo]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59769

Link above: An earlier topic about Steve Fossett: "Solo around the World"*

Adventurer Fossett declared dead

Fossett has set many world records as pilot, balloonist and sailor

Millionaire businessman and adventurer Steve Fossett has been declared legally dead by a court in Chicago.

Mr Fossett has been missing for five months since his single-engine plane disappeared over the Nevada desert.

His wife had filed a court petition to have him declared dead so the process of executing his will could begin.

The judge said the evidence Mr Fossett was dead was "more than sufficient". He described the 63-year-old's fortune as "vast", and an eight-figure sum.

There has been no trace of Mr Fossett since he took off from Yerington, Nevada, on 3 September 2007.

The flight had been expected to last about three hours and Mr Fossett was not required to, and did not, file a flight plan.

World records

In the weeks after Mr Fossett's disappearance, extensive aerial searches were carried out in both Nevada and California.

At the height of the operation 45 planes were scouring the mountainous terrain.

The search did discover several previously undiscovered downed planes - some of which were decades old - but neither Mr Fossett, nor his aircraft, were found.

Mr Fossett reportedly took the flight to look for locations that could be used for an attempt on the land speed record.

He had racked up about 100 world records.

* In March 2005, Mr Fossett became the first to fly a plane solo, non-stop around the globe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7248161.stm

Personal note:

I think it's weird, odd, strange and mysterious at the same time that they can't find a trace of Steve Fossett and his plane with all the sophisticated techniques available nowadays....

LaoPo

[Flatouthruthefog]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59769

Link above: An earlier topic about Steve Fossett: "Solo around the World"*

Adventurer Fossett declared dead

Fossett has set many world records as pilot, balloonist and sailor

Millionaire businessman and adventurer Steve Fossett has been declared legally dead by a court in Chicago.

Mr Fossett has been missing for five months since his single-engine plane disappeared over the Nevada desert.

His wife had filed a court petition to have him declared dead so the process of executing his will could begin.

The judge said the evidence Mr Fossett was dead was "more than sufficient". He described the 63-year-old's fortune as "vast", and an eight-figure sum.

There has been no trace of Mr Fossett since he took off from Yerington, Nevada, on 3 September 2007.

The flight had been expected to last about three hours and Mr Fossett was not required to, and did not, file a flight plan.

World records

In the weeks after Mr Fossett's disappearance, extensive aerial searches were carried out in both Nevada and California.

At the height of the operation 45 planes were scouring the mountainous terrain.

The search did discover several previously undiscovered downed planes - some of which were decades old - but neither Mr Fossett, nor his aircraft, were found.

Mr Fossett reportedly took the flight to look for locations that could be used for an attempt on the land speed record.

He had racked up about 100 world records.

* In March 2005, Mr Fossett became the first to fly a plane solo, non-stop around the globe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7248161.stm

Personal note:

I think it's weird, odd, strange and mysterious at the same time that they can't find a trace of Steve Fossett and his plane with all the sophisticated techniques available nowadays....

LaoPo

LaoPo, your last line has to be one of the modern world's BIGGEST UNDERSTATEMENTS! Congrats!!

Since the whole of the modern technology of the world's allegedly most 'advanced' nation gave up on this (priveleged but) brave man, what have we seen in the media? Sweet F.A. that's what!

Either corporate/governmental USA cannot stand this loss of face ("Hey we can put men on the moon but we can't find a billionaire in our own back yard" etc etc) OR something in the whole story is rotten to the core.

I can't personally be bothered to spend a whole night on Google on this, but can YOU or ANYONE tell me EXACTLY what type of plane he was flying?? If it was a string and fabric biplane (which I did read early in this saga) then the electronic wizardry might find it hard to detect. But if it was an allmetal modern thing then the boffins should be bloody well ashamed of themselves! Technology that can read a car licence plate from outer space (they boasted in the FIRST Gulf War!) and they can't find one of America's heroes? Well, pith and tush!

And don't start telling me how big that bloody desert is. THAT is not the issue here.

We are not being told the truth! The public deserve to know!! (Especially those who may have benefitted from his Will if he had died peacefully in his sleep............hmmmmmmmmm???????).

Hey USA! STOP this negative idle speculation by know-nothings like me. Tell us the TRUTH!!

[lazeeboy]

maybe he's with lord lucan

[Flatouthruthefog]

maybe he's with lord lucan

You ARE well informed! Way ahead of me!!

Only today I heard that in the newly re-formed Glenn Miller orchestra, Steve is on drums, Lucan on the fiddle and they play every night at the chip shop where Elvis sings and serves behind the counter!!

Amelia Earhart does barrel rolls on Wednesdays (amazing at her age) and Amy Johnson flies in now and then for a fish and 3-pennorth to go.

I'd drop in there once a week, except for that fairly forbidding looking cop who stands outside quite a lot. Old but forbidding. Just a tad like Martin Bormann in fact...............

[bulmercke]

Into thin air: An investigation into the disappearance of Steve Fossett

By DAMON SYSON - DAILY MAIL -

Last updated at 16:23pm on 18th January 2008

A hugely experienced pilot, a hi-tech search by hundreds of volunteers over 10,000 square miles that has turned up six plane wreckages... and still no trace after four months. Damon Syson reports on a missing millionaire - and how a conspiracy theory is born

We're 8,000ft above sea level in a single-engined plane half an hour out of Reno, Nevada.

The pilot turns and says casually, "You'd better get strapped in. It's going to get dam_n-ass bumpy once we hit the mountains."

It's an unfortunate phrase, especially when you consider the mission.

Steve Fossett and Richard Branson

The six-seater Cessna T210N is already moving around enough to make my stomach lurch.

But Tom Grossman, the amateur pilot taking me on an aerial tour of the Nevada wilderness, insists conditions are exceptionally calm today.

"In the summer," he says with morbid relish, "a downdraught will slam-dunk you at 2,000ft a minute.

"Flying near the ground is a dangerous game in these parts." Quite.

This is where multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett went missing on September 3 last year.

His disappearance led to one of the largest manhunts in US history using the most up-to-date search-and-rescue technology.

Yet no trace of the 63-year-old has ever been found.

After three months of fading hope, Fossett's wife Peggy, asked the courts to declare him legally dead.

Like most people in the UK, my immediate reaction was one of incredulity.

Central Nevada is one of the most remote wildernesses in America, but if satellite wizardry means we can photograph a beer can from space, surely we can locate a plane crash?

Actually, the further we get from the suburban sprawl of Reno, the more I understand the problem the rescue teams faced.

The area they were searching is bigger than Wales.

They did find, however, six previously unaccounted for aircraft, including a wreck dating back to 1965.

Apart from the bizarre sight of a distant geo-thermal power plant emitting a plume of steam from the side of a mountain, there is no sign of habitation as far as the eye can see.

Just desolate mountains creased with canyons and crevasses.

Our ground speed is 200mph, and it's been almost half an hour since we last saw a road.

"If you keep flying in this direction you'll eventually hit Las Vegas," says Tom.

"But there's not much in between; just sage brush, scorpions, rattlesnakes and coyotes. The real Wild West."

There's no doubting the savagery of the landscape, but if Fossett was to die, everyone assumed it would be in a blaze of glory, not doing something so banal as taking a plane for a spin on a clear day.

It's the equivalent of Sir Ranulph Fiennes passing out from exhaustion on his way to Tesco.

Fossett, who accompanied Sir Richard Branson on numerous jaunts, ran across Death Valley and swam the English Channel (in a record-breakingly slow time, 22hrs 15mins – which merely attests to his dogged endurance).

He broke more than 100 records in aviation, sailing and ballooning, and was constantly seeking new challenges.

While studying for an economics degree at Stanford, his friends persuaded him to swim the 1.5 miles to Alcatraz island off San Francisco.

After college, he set about climbing the highest peaks on each continent.

At work, he made a multimillion-dollar fortune as a commodities trader, earning enough to retire in 1990, when he focused on setting records full-time.

The land-speed record was to be the jewel in his crown.

Borrowing Tom's state-of-the-art binoculars, I scan the ground for any sign of glinting metal.

Even though they're £2,500 gyro-stabilised Canons, it's exhausting work.

After a few miles of seeing nothing but 20ft conifers, my eyes begin to swim.

Tom throws the plane into a steep banking turn and we circle above a ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

It's made up of a central building, a scattering of guest houses, a small lake, a tennis court and a mile-long runway.

It was from here that Steve Fossett took off that fateful morning, flying one of Hilton's planes, a blue-and-white Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon – a super-light, single-engined aerobatic plane used for practising rolls and spins. Tom then points the Cessna towards the Wassuk Range, a jagged row of mountain peaks, the highest of which, Mount Grant, rises to 11,000ft.

As promised, things start to get bumpy.

This area has a reputation for some of the continent's worst turbulence – even commercial flights are prone to doing a bucking-bronco act when passing through.

At this year's Reno Air Show there were three fatal crashes in four days. Passing over the peak, we're suddenly greeted with an awesome sight – Walker Lake, a wide, blank expanse of deep blue.

There are no buildings along its shore and no boats on the surface.

Some believe that Fossett's body lies here.

The engine whines and my stomach jumps. "Whoa – sorry," says Tom.

"We just hit a downdraught."

Off to our right is Hawthorne, Nevada, a US Army depot plonked down in a windswept valley ringed by Tolkien-esque mountains.

Beside the lake there's a square mile of military storage bunkers – weird man-made mounds connected by railway tracks, which Tom tells me contain "decommissioned bombs, old munitions and who knows what".

In fact, Hawthorne is America's biggest ammunition storage depot.

To the northeast of Walker Lake is one of the most extensive clusters of Military Operations Areas (MOAs) in the US.

Bearing this in mind, it's hardly a surprise that conspiracy theories abound among local people.

Perhaps Fossett strayed in and was shot down, or even had a heart attack, lost control and careered into the MOA unwittingly.

Aeronautical charts clearly mark the MOAs, alongside printed warnings that incoming aircraft face the danger of interception, while the Nevada Bureau of Land Management warns of "unusual, often invisible hazards to aircraft such as artillery firing, aerial gunnery, missiles or ground target attacks. Penetration of restricted areas," it continues, "may be extremely hazardous for non-authorised aircraft and is legally prohibited."

Since Fossett disappeared, the bars of Reno have been abuzz: "he must have seen something he wasn't meant to"; "he's in Panama – like that English canoe dude"; "he's been abducted by aliens" (this is, after all, not far north of Area 51, one of the most secretive places in the world and the subject of UFO speculation).

Aviation internet forums are also humming: "Maybe he flew into a place in Nevada where he shouldn't have?" says one.

Another suggests he strayed into "a secretive military controlled area that's off limits to civilians or to all but a tiny number of military".

No one knows of course, but Fossett was healthy and an experienced and sensible flier, and the thorough search of the area – at least that permitted to be searched – found nothing. The theories will continue.

One thing everyone agrees on, however, is that if Fossett had survived the crash he would have found some way to signal – he would have known how to make a fire with petrol from the plane, using the battery to make a spark.

I ask if we need permission to land at Hawthorne.

"Not really," Tom says.

"There are airstrips like this all over the country – you can hop from one to the other. I'll see if there's anyone manning the radio.

"Good morning, Hawthorne, how are things looking down there?"

After a pause, a female voice crackles back through our Bose headsets: "Hi there. I'm just out in the back yard feeding my dogs but y'all are welcome to land."

Tom eases the Cessna down onto the dusty airstrip, brings it to a standstill and we climb out.

The icy wind hits us immediately.

It's a beautiful clear day but the temperature up here at 4,375ft is about minus five.

In the summer, however, it can get so hot in the high desert that it's almost uninhabitable. It's eerily beautiful; and, of course, deadly.

On an unassuming doorway in a light-industrial park in Sparks, Nevada, a sign reads Marathon Racing.

You'd never guess it, but behind a small office is a cavernous 60ft garage containing a piece of history in the making – the Fossett LSR (land-speed racer).

It's a sleek and delicate-looking machine, like Concorde without the wings.

The plan of those working here is to use it to push past the 800mph barrier and keep going.

"I first met Steve Fossett on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the autumn of 2006," says my guide Louise Ann Noeth, author of land-speed racing's bible, Bonneville Salt Flats, and part of the Fossett team.

"He climbed into a streamliner [the common name for long, slim, land-speed racing vehicles] for the first time and I'll be damned if he didn't get up to 300mph in two or three runs.

"I was seriously impressed – this guy looked like an accountant, but he managed in two runs what it takes some people years to achieve. It was exquisite driving."

Fossett's experience that day convinced him that he had what it took to go for the record – to drive a jet-powered vehicle across a dry lake bed, eating up a mile every four seconds.

Designing and building a car from scratch is a Herculean task, not to mention prohibitively expensive, but as luck would have it there was one already half there in the shape of Craig Breedlove's mothballed Spirit Of America.

Breedlove, the land-speed-racing pioneer and five-time record holder, had designed the vehicle with claims he could take it in excess of 800mph.

But on his first time out, in October 1996, it flipped onto its side and performed a dramatic 180-degree turn at 675mph.

A year later he tried again, reaching 676mph and again sustaining major damage.

Meanwhile, a British team led by Richard Noble had arrived at Nevada's Black Rock desert and in October 1997 RAF fighter pilot Andy Green drove the Rolls-Royce jet engine-powered Thrust SSC at 763mph, becoming the first person to officially break the sound barrier and gaining the land-speed record, which he still holds today.

Breedlove's car gathered dust in a Californian garage for nearly a decade.

Fossett heard that he was looking to sell and, after months of negotiations, he finally bought it from him and set about putting together a team of technicians, led by rocket scientist Eric Ahlstrom.

The tall and intense Ahlstrom has a touch of the mad scientist about him.

The son of a former senior executive and chief scientist at Boeing, he's been steeped in aeronautics since he was a child.

Fossett was in daily contact with Ahlstrom via email and phone and visited the workshop every few weeks to see how things were progressing.

His last visit was in August, a fortnight before his final flight.

"There's a perception of Steve being this rich guy who bought thrills," says Ahlstrom.

"He wasn't like that at all.

"He was the nicest guy – an extremely honest and open individual.

"But the second he stepped into the car or started planning something, there was an intensity about him that's very rare, and very inspiring."

On the morning of Tuesday September 4, 2007, Eric Ahlstrom received a call from one of Fossett's aides telling him their boss was missing.

Fossett had taken off the previous morning at 08:45 on what was expected to be a two-hour pleasure flight, planning to return in time to leave for home in his own aircraft at midday.

He was not wearing the Breitling Emergency watch with a built-in transponder that he often wore.

Initially, it was suggested that Fossett was looking for potential sites on which to run the jet car.

"Absolutely not," says Ahlstrom, shaking his head.

"We had already come up with our test plan – we knew where we were going.

"He did a lot of surveying for dry lake beds earlier in the year but always took very specific mapping equipment with him to mark it on his GPS.

"He didn't take any of that equipment with him that day. He was just taking the Citabria for a spin."

Some suggest he might have got into difficulties.

The Citabria is the aircraft equivalent of a dune buggy; Fossett had never flown one before, but he was still regarded as one of the world's most talented airmen.

"He was a great pilot because he had good judgment," says Ahlstrom.

"At test-pilot school you're given a nickname to describe you.

"His was “Cucumber”, as in “cool as”. Nothing ever panicked Steve. Under stress, he just focused."

No one who knew Fossett believes he would have taken risks by flying too near the ground.

"He was well aware of the risks and had flown in this region many times," says Ahlstrom.

"Fossett was a friend of Barron Hilton's and had been visiting his ranch for nearly a decade. If I defined him as a pilot," adds Ahlstrom, "it would be this: extremely conservative."

Ahlstrom and the team's crew chief, Leigh Golden, joined the search, flying two sorties and then co-ordinating a public satellite image search from the Marathon Racing office.

They received more than 200 messages each day from concerned well-wishers who were scanning up-to-date Google Earth satellite images of Nevada for signs of Fossett's plane.

The Air National Guard continued running sorties throughout the night using infrared detection equipment, while the Nevada Civil Air Patrol expanded their total search territory to more than 10,000 square miles.

Every bit of technology available was thrown at the effort, including High Altitude Mapping Missions (HAMM) photography.

Flying at approximately 20,000ft over the mountainous terrain, the HAMM aircraft photographed 800 square miles per hour, generating images with a pixel size of six inches (far more detailed than standard satellite images), which the team then analysed.

Volunteers arrived from all over the region, joining a systematic grid search focused on a 600-square-mile area south of the ranch.

The mountain ridge along Walker Lake that I flew over with Tom Grossman was scoured with a fine tooth comb by 20 aircraft, including helicopters and planes able to fly at less than 30ft above treetop level.

One of the search aircraft was fitted with hyperspectral imaging equipment, capable of recognising disturbed earth and impact sites not visible to the human eye.

And still nothing.

So is it possible they were looking in the wrong place?

Eric Ahlstrom thinks not.

"This was not a fast aircraft.

"It had a top speed of 160mph and at high altitude the performance falls off – so it was probably closer to 90mph.

"A ground witness report correlated with a radar track we had.

"That put him south of Hawthorne at about 10.20am, and a second radar track put him over the pass south of the mountain range next to Walker Lake, coming back towards the ranch at just shy of 11am.

"He's got to be heading back, right?

"Or at the very least he's not going far.

"People say, “Oh, he had enough fuel to get another 100 miles,” but you don't fly that way.

"A conservative pilot is never going to land with less than a quarter of a tank."

Even after a week with no clues, many believed Fossett would come walking out of the desert with yet another tale of superhuman endurance to tell.

"If anyone's going to end up walking back up to the ranch and apologising for pranging the Hiltons' plane, it's likely to be Steve Fossett," said Richard Branson.

The idea that Fossett committed suicide has been universally dismissed. He was excited about the record attempt and, although this fact has never been made public before, Branson had also asked him to be one of the pilots on his inaugural Virgin Galactic space flight.

Locally, some believe he crashed into the 60ft deep Walker Lake.

Ahlstrom is sceptical: "A sheriff's department boat with sonar and six professional divers was dispatched to check not only Walker Lake but a couple of other lakes in the area. They came up empty."

Eric Ahlstrom believes there are only two credible theories.

"The wreckage may have impacted on a slope and rolled into a hole between boulders.

"If there's enough scrub, someone would have to be literally walking over the ground to find it.

"There are also a lot of exploratory mines out there. If the wreckage somehow fell down a mineshaft… It would be extraordinary, but not beyond the realm of possibility."

The second theory is that Fossett suffered a medical emergency in mid-air, such as a heart attack. "Perhaps very late into his flight," says Ahlstrom, "after the last radar ping, something happened to incapacitate him.

"If the aircraft was in trim it could have gone off in a random direction to the exhaustion of its fuel.

"It could have gone 100 miles. That's 30,000 square miles of search area – 30,000 square miles of rough uninhabited terrain."

But it's all just speculation.

The only thing we know for certain is that Steve Fossett strolled out of Barron Hilton's ranch one morning last September wearing shorts and a T-shirt, carrying nothing but a bottle of water – and vanished into thin air.

[Ping]

Excellent article, Bulerchke - thanks for the post. (Should lay some conspiracy theories to rest.)

[Rinrada]

It would be nice if one day we find out that he has just done a body swerve and opened the Fly by Night hamburger joint in Chiang Mai...if only .......if not rip.....steve..ri.......

[LaoPo]

Thanks for the story Bulmercke !

This was the plane Steve Fossett was flying:

Details about the type of plane:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Champion_Decathlon

http://www.amerchampionaircraft.com/newac/decath/sdspecs.htm

LaoPo

[LaoPo]

Bump - NEWS

Pilot's license found in Calif. may be Fossett's

By JULIANA BARBASSA – 48 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A hiker in a rugged part of eastern California found a pilot's license and other items possibly belonging to Steve Fossett, the adventurer who vanished on a solo flight in a borrowed plane more than a year ago, authorities said Wednesday.

The number on the pilot license in a photograph sent to the Federal Aviation Administration matches the number on the pilot certificate the agency has on file for Fossett, spokesman Ian Gregor said.

"We're trying to determine the authenticity of the document," Gregor said.

The hiker, Preston Morrow, said he found an FAA identity card, a pilot's license, a third ID and $1,005 in cash tangled in a bush off a trail just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes on Monday. He said he turned the items over to local police Wednesday after unsuccessful attempts to contact Fossett's family.

Mammoth Lakes - Cal.

Mammoth Lakes police investigator Crystal Schafer confirmed that the department had the items, including the ones bearing Fossett's name.

Search teams led by the Madera County Sheriff's Department have been sent to the scene, and an air and ground effort was expected to be under way soon, said sheriff's spokeswoman Erica Stewart.

Morrow said he found no sign of a plane or any human remains.

Fossett, whose exploits included circumnavigating the globe in a balloon, 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 following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles.

Michael LoVallo, a lawyer for Fossett's widow, Peggy, said, "We are aware of the reports and are trying to verify the information."

Aviators had flown over Mammoth Lakes in the search for Fossett, but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane. The most intense searching was concentrated to the north, 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.

Morrow, 43, who works in a Mammoth Lakes sporting goods store, said he initially didn't know who Fossett was. It wasn't until he showed the items to co-workers Tuesday that one of them recognized Fossett's name.

"It was just weird to find that much money in the backcountry, and the IDs," he said. "My immediate thought was it was a hiker or backpacker's stuff, and a bear got to the stuff and took it away to look for food or whatever."

Morrow said he returned to the scene with a friend Tuesday to search further and did not find any airplane wreckage or human remains. They did find a black Nautica pullover fleece, size XL, in the same area, but he said he wasn't sure if the items were related.

Morrow said he consulted local attorney David Baumwohl, and they initially tried to contact the Fossett family but were unable to get through to their lawyers.

"We figured if it was us, we'd want to know first. We wouldn't want to learn from the news," Baumwohl said.

Baumwohl and Morrow tried to contact the law firm that handled the death declaration. When they weren't successful, they decided to turn everything over to the police, the attorney said.

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

The California Civil Air Patrol and private planes from Hilton's ranch previously had flown over the area, but it was "extremely rough country," said Joe Sanford, undersheriff in Lyon County, Nev., which was involved in the initial search.

One of Fossett's friends reacted to Wednesday's news with cautious optimism.

If the belongings turn out to be authentic, then that could help narrow the search area for possible wreckage, said Ray Arvidson, a scientist at Washington University who worked on Fossett's past balloon flights.

"It would be nice to get closure," Arvidson said.

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.

--AP

LaoPo

[pampal]

RIP

[LaoPo]

October 2, 2008

Wreckage of missing aviator Steve Fossett found in California

Search teams looking for the remains of the adventurer Steve Fossett, who disappeared while out flying a year ago, have found the wreckage of his aircraft in the California mountains

The day after a local ski shop manager handed police three ID cards bearing Fossett's name that he found on a hike through the Inyo National Forest, the National Transport Safety Board confirmed today that wreckage sighted nearby was that of his plane.

The NTSB said the small airplane "appears to be the aircraft piloted by Steve Fossett".

Fossett, whose record-breaking attempts were often backed by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, has not been seen since he took off from an airstrip at an isolated ranch in the Nevada desert on September 3 last year in a small Bellanca airplane.

The wreckage was located about 10,000 feet (3,200 meters) up the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes. The NTSB said it has sent an investigator to the accident site.

The identification cards - the first concrete clue in the hunt for the missing adventurer - suggested that Fossett fell to earth closer to civilisation, and in a different direction, than search and rescue workers had assumed.

Mammoth Lakes is around 90 miles south of hotel magnate Barron Hilton’s Flying M Ranch which Fossett, 63, took off from.

Search teams had already flown over Mammoth Lakes but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane. Instead the search - which covered 20,000 square miles - was concentrated to the north of the town, based on sightings of Mr Fossett’s plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had.

The hunt has investigated numerous sightings of wreckage, but so far all have proved to be unrelated to Fossett's disappearance.

While the latest reported sighting was investigated, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was trying to determine whether the ID cards found by hiker Preston Morrow are authentic.

Mr Morrow said he found an FAA identity card, a pilot’s licence, a third ID and $1,000 in cash but saw no sign of a plane or of any human remains. He handed the items to police yesterday after unsuccessful attempts to contact Fossett’s family.

Mr Morrow, 43, who works in a Mammoth Lakes sporting goods store, said he did not know who Mr Fossett was initially, but that a co-worker recognised the name when he showed them the items he had found.

"It was just weird to find that much money in the backcountry, and the IDs," he said. "My immediate thought was it was a hiker or backpacker’s stuff, and a bear got to the stuff and took it away to look for food or whatever."

Mr Morrow said he returned to the scene with his wife and three friends on Tuesday to search further and did not find any plane wreckage or human remains. They found a black Nautica pullover fleece in the same area but Mr Morrow said he was not sure if the items were related.

Crystal Schafer, a Mammoth Lakes police investigator, confirmed that the department had the items.

Fossett was declared legally dead in February by an Illinois judge. The latest reports have put his family and friends back on tenterhooks. His widow, Peggy, said in a statement yesterday: "I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband’s remains. I am grateful to all of those involved in this effort."

Andy Green, the current landspeed record holder who was helping Fossett prepare a record-breaking attempt, said: "I really want to know what happened to my friend Steve but there’s still a chance he might be alive somewhere if there isn’t evidence of a fatal crash, so I’m a bit torn."

Green, an RAF fighter pilot who lives in London, said: "His widow has found it very hard, as anyone would, when your husband of many years just disappears.

"For all of them, I’m hopeful that finally we will have some closure on this."

Mr Fossett, a good friend of Sir Richard Branson, was a multi-millionaire who made his fortune dealing stocks in Chicago. He set dozens of world records in sailboats, gliders and hot-air balloons and famously made the first solo non-stop, non-refuelled circumnavigation of the world in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. In 2002, he was the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle4867968.ece link with video

LaoPo

[LaoPo]

Pictured: Wreckage of plane flown by missing adventurer Steve Fossett

By David Gardner

Last updated at 6:23 PM on 02nd October 2008

Search teams looking for millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett believe they have found the wreckage of the plane he was flying when he disappeared more than a year ago.

Officials said the small airplane found yesterday 'appears to be the aircraft piloted by Steve Fossett.'

They said nothing about finding a body, however.

The wreckage was located about 10,000 feet (3,200 meters) up the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes, California. The National Transportation Safety Board said it has sent an investigator to the accident site.

Found? Rescue crews have discovered the wreckage of a small plane believed to bepiloted by missing adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished in September 2007

Nothing was found of the adventurer despite a frantic search, which included aerial flights, widespread searches and even searching satellite images

Officials said the wreckage was spotted during an aerial search of the area where a hiker had discovered identification with the missing aviator's name.

Preston Morrow said he found three identification cards with Fossett's name and about $1000 in cash tangled in a bush just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes in California.

Erica Stuart, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, said a ground crew will be dispatched to make a definite determination on the wreckage. The sheriff is expected to reveal more information today.

Fossett - who was close friends with billionaire Sir Richard Branson - was last seen on September 3, 2007, when he took off from the Flying-M Ranch outside Minden, Nevada, on a 'pleasure flight' over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in a single-engine plane.

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

Sir Richard Branson said he expects the body of his 'great and extraordinary' friend to be found soon.

Pals: Fossett with his sponsor and friend, Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson

When Fossett failed to return, a search began that ultimately included thousands of volunteers, hundreds of officials and dozens of aircraft.

It was officially suspended on October 2, 2007, and a Chicago judge declared Fossett dead in February.

Hiker Preston Morrow found the Federal Aviation Administration ID cards with Fossett's name on them, along with the cash, while returning from a mountain hike on Monday.

Mr Morrow said there was no sign of any wreckage at the site of the discovery.

'I was coming back down this really steep terrain and what caught my eye was these little ID cards in the dirt and the pine needles, and some $100 bills.

'I see the ID. I caught the name. I got the ID cards ... and about five or six of the hundred dollar bills (which) were dirty and muddy.

'I was wondering, why are there some ID cards and money when there was nothing else? No wallet, no bags, nothing nothing, nothing.

'When I originally found it I looked at the name so quickly it didn't enter my head. I'm just a hiker having a good time.

'I'm hoping they find something there because we all know the family are all wondering what happened to him.'

A part of the wreckage found by rescue teams, discovered 10,000 feet up the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes, California

The 63-year-old adventurer became the first person to fly alone in a balloon around the world in 2002 and set more than 100 records in five sports.

Mammoth Lakes police chief Randy Schienle has refused to speculate, but said officers were looking for more evidence by air and on foot.

The wallet contained a pilot’s licence with Mr Fossett’s name and details, but no photo ID. There was also a small amount of cash.

‘The wallet seemed to have been out in the open for a long time because it was pretty weathered, as was the sweatshirt,’ he said.

The sweatshirt, he added, had a Nautica label - not a common label for hikers in the area.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, said in a statement that she was aware of Morrow's discovery.

'I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband's remains,' she said. 'I am grateful to all of those involved in this effort.'

He said searchers were hoping to find more belongings that could help solve the mystery that has led to a flood of conspiracy theories.

The hikers and their friends found nothing more when they went back to the scene after alerting police.

Mr Fossett's plane, a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon, carried a locator that sends a satellite signal after a rough landing, but officials couldn't pick up any signals from the plane or radio communication after he disappeared.

Sir Richard Branson thought his friend may have been searching for places for an upcoming attempt to break the land speed record in a car when he went missing.

Steve Fossett had an unquenchable thirst for adventure.

The world-famous daredevil garnered a string of records for his spectacular challenges.

New search: Madera County Sheriff John Anderson, holds up a photo copy of three pieces of Fossett identification found by hiker Preston Morrow in a rugged part of eastern California

The millionaire achieved world records in feats involving balloons, sailing boats, gliders, airships and powered aircraft.

A few weeks before he disappeared last September, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and told a crowd at Ohio's Dayton Convention Centre he had no intention of giving up his daring feats.

'I'm hoping you didn't give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done,' he said.

Fossett, who was 63 when he disappeared, graduated from Stanford University and eventually went to Chicago to work in the securities business, founding his own firm, Marathon Securities.

But his passion was adventure.

In 2002 he became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon, travelling 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere in just two weeks.

The record followed five previous attempts, some of which were dramatic failures.

In March 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refuelling.

Four months later, Fossett completed a transatlantic flight in a replica First World War bi-plane.

He and co-pilot Mark Rebholz successfully flew from Newfoundland to Clifden in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland, repeating the feat achieved by British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown 86 years before them.

He said the men who had inspired him had taken many chances, adding: 'I was very impressed that they didn't really have a good idea of the weather.

'They didn't have a good idea of the things that could go wrong with the airplane so they had it all hanging out, risking their lives.

'Whereas we were doing not what would be called a safe flight, but basically a flight that was under control with an acceptable risk.'

Fossett and Rebholz navigated their way across the Atlantic using only a sextant and compass - the instruments available to Alcock and Brown in 1919.

The wood and canvas bi-plane landed to cheers from thousands of spectators.

Fossett and a co-pilot also claimed a world glider altitude record of 50,671 feet during a flight over the Andes mountains.

Continues here with more photos:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ve-Fossett.html

LaoPo

[Jimjim]

A local in that area said they doubt his body will be found as it was likely eaten by bears or cougars.

[Old Croc]

Crash site investigators have found human remains in the wreckage of Steve Fossett's small plane on a remote California mountain, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board has said.

Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Reuters by telephone that search crews had found a "very small" amount of human remains amid the airplane's debris.

He declined to provide details, adding that local officials will be responsible for examining the remains.

"It will taken by the sheriff and the coroner and they will do the work," Rosenker said.

Earlier at a news conference he noted that a judge had declared Fossett dead. "Our job is to determine what happened on the mountain," he said.

The mangled wreckage of Fossett's plane was found earlier today.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said the shattered remains of the single-engine Bellanca had been spotted during an aerial search of the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains in California.

Rescuers later reached the plane on foot and confirmed it was Fossett's aircraft.

Anderson said photos of the site appeared to indicate that the plane had smashed head-on into a mountainside at high speed.

National Transportation and Safety Board official Mark Rosenker said preliminary analysis of the site indicated Fossett died in the crash.

Fossett vanished on September 3 last year after taking off on a solo flight from a private airstrip in neighboring Nevada.

Rescue teams started combing the area near Mammoth Lakes yesterday after the discovery of aviation identity cards bearing Fossett's name, a faded fleece sweatshirt and $1299 cash.

Anderson said the crash site was roughly 400m from where the identity cards and cash were found by a hiker.