Steve Fossett missing!

[TheSoccerMom]

I agree -- a search doesn't usually garner this much attention and effort.

I think we went almost two weeks on an aerial search once, but it was snowing a lot, and everyone knew it was a case of "now or not at all"...  and even then, the aircraft wasn't found until many years later, when a hunter stumbled over it.

There's a whole LOT of country out there....   

[Rooster Cruiser]

Steve's Family has apparently reached the conclusion the rest of us have;

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312983,00.html

CHICAGO —  The wife of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who disappeared while flying his plane in September in rugged Western terrain, asked a court Monday to declare him legally dead.

"As painful as it is for Mrs. Fossett, other members of the family and his many friends, it is time to initiate this process," said attorney Michael A. LoVallo, who filed the petition in Cook County Circuit Court.

The request was a step toward resolving the legal status of Fossett's estate, which according to court papers is "vast, surpassing eight figures in liquid assets, various entities and real estate," LoVallo said.

Fossett, 63, disappeared Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif.

Fossett was on a pleasure flight and not looking for a dry lake to use as a surface on which to set the world land speed record, as was initially reported, according to the petition filed on behalf of Peggy V. Fossett.

He did not have a parachute, nor did he take a watch that had a transponder and could have sent out a distress signal, the petition said. There was a transponder aboard but no signal was received.

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Aviator Steve Fossett With winter closing in, a rescue effort that involved dozens of planes and helicopters was officially suspended after more than a month of searching. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a preliminary report that the plane was destroyed in a fatal accident.

Fossett had become one of America's best-known adventurers in more than a decade of pouring his fabulous wealth — earned in Chicago's commodities markets — into chases for world records in sailing, ballooning and other rugged and sometimes dangerous outdoor activities.

The soft-spoken, California-born Fossett had previously survived a nearly 30,000-foot plunge in a crippled balloon, a dangerous swim through the frigid English channel and hours stranded in shark-infested seas.

He also completed Alaska's Iditarod race, scaled some of the world's best-known peaks, sailed and flew around the world, and set more than 100 aviation and distance records.

The area where authorities believe his plane went down is rugged and mountainous, with many ravines covered by trees and brush. While the wreckage of the plane has not been found, the petition said there was no chance that Fossett might somehow have survived.

Among other things, he had only a single water bottle to cope with the 80-degree heat, even if he had emerged from the wreckage alive.

"Fossett did not have any reason to disappear," the petition said. "Fossett was happy and passionately involved in his pursuit of adventure."

So, Steve has gone West.  Tailwinds, and Blue Skies.   

[PiperGirl]

You know how we all wondered if so much effort would be put in to finding the common pilot... Although the family of this pilot is trying to keep people involved in the search, it's obvious that the effort for this pilot is puny compared to Steve Fossett....

Oh well... Fame and money talk.

Family Of Lost Pilot Seeks Help Online

 When famed aviator Steve Fossett went missing in Nevada last September, the scale of the search was humbling to many pilots who wondered, if I disappear one day, will the whole world come looking? Thanks to the Internet, it's easier for even us regular folks to get the word out when a beloved pilot fails to come home. On Oct. 23, Ron Boychuk, 60, took off in his Cessna 172 from Springbank Airport near Calgary, Alberta, en route to Qualicum Beach, in British Columbia. He never arrived, and after extensive air and ground searches turned up nothing, his family launched a Web site in the hope that folks in the area will remember to keep a lookout. "If you or anyone you know has any information, no matter how small, we want to know, as any info that leads to the finding of Ron will result in a cash reward," the site reads. Boychuk's family has raised about $20,000, according to the Edmonton Sun. His three sons have joined with search and rescue teams and many volunteers to scour the area, but came up with nothing. "Because of the large area and the terrain, there is still sooo much more to search," it says at the site. "His sons will not give up until their father is found."



The site makes no mention of using the Mechanical Turk method that was employed in the search for Fossett, in which hundreds of volunteers worked online to search satellite images. But Fossett went missing over the desert. It seems unlikely the satellite method would help in searching the mostly forested Canada region.

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1002-full.html#196628

[TheSoccerMom]

Even though Steve's wife asked that he be declared dead in November, the search will continue....

From the Nevada Appeal:

"The search has not been called off, but suspended," said Gary Derks, operations officer for the Division of Emergency Management for the State of Nevada.

"We've got private organizations that are going to be out there as soon as next week. There's a lot of people out there still searching. Is the state putting people out there? No. But Mr. Fossett is not forgotten. It's still an ongoing search and will continue to be an on-going search until he's located."

There's a lot of snow in Nevada.....  The article mentioned two specific areas...  I wish them all luck.  There's a lot of wild country in that state!

[Oddball]

is there any news about steve fossett? been awhile since ive heard anything, all i heard was went went missing on the news and that was it

[Baradium]

is there any news about steve fossett? been awhile since ive heard anything, all i heard was went went missing on the news and that was it

That's all the news there is,  no sign of him.

[Oddball]

heard recently that mr steve fosset has been decleared legally dead

[airtac]

heard recently that mr steve fosset has been decleared legally dead

I reckon his widow needs to settle his estate----and you know what they say about that?      "A will is a dead giveaway"  <groan>

[Oddball]

airtac i think you need to get off the cheap wine and get onto the good whiskey, i think your blood/alcohol levels are low

[airtac]

Cheap wine?  Hardly, I live in wine country and drink the finest--called "Two Buck Chuck" (Charles Shaw--$2.00 a bottle)    but it's a bloody holiday today (presidents day) so I might have a shot of Glenfiddich before supper as a birthday toast to our former leaders. 

[Oddball]

you dont want Glenfidich, i find the taste goes after the first dram

[Liberte]

A hiker in the California Sierras has found personal items of Mr. Fossett's -- his pilot certificate, an ID of some sort, and a bunch of loose cash.  It was in the Minaret Lake area, according to the news, and on Google Earth you can see what rugged country that is.

RIP, Mr. Fossett.

 

[Rooster Cruiser]

Finally after a year, they've found his plane, but no sign of Fosset.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,431605,00.html

The wreckage of a small plane found in the eastern California woods is in fact that of lost adventurer Steve Fossett, authorities said Thursday.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson told reporters that searchers "found enough wreckage to determine that it was in fact the aircraft" Fossett was flying solo when he disappeared last September.

The news came after federal transportation officials headed to California Thursday morning to investigate the plane debris found in a rugged wooded area.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) went to the eastern part of the state to analyze what appeared to be the remnants of a small plane — discovered overnight by searchers not far from where a hiker came across Fossett's personal effects earlier in the week.

Fossett, 63, vanished on a solo flight more than a year ago.

The wreckage was located at about an elevation of 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the Mammoth Lakes, Calif., area, the NTSB said.

Fossett — who made international headlines with a daring round-the-world balloon trek — was flying alone when he vanished Sept. 3, 2007.

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Aviator Steve Fossett The initial aerial sighting was called in around sunset, according to Erica Stuart, spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff's Office.

Searchers had been combing a 10-mile radius around the spot where a hiker had found what appeared to be a pilot's license and other items belonging to Fossett in a thicket of woods not far from the Nevada state line.

Preston Morrow, a local ski shop owner, told FOX News that he was hiking alone with his dog near his home in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. on Monday afternoon when he stumbled across what appeared to be three identification cards bearing Fossett's name and issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in Illinois.

Morrow, 43, also found $1,005 in cash, he said.

On Tuesday, he returned to the site to get a GPS reading when he spotted a sweatshirt on top of a ridge.

Morrow then brought the items back home to his wife, a local fire captain, Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Randy Schienle told FOX News.

He then turned the items over to local police Wednesday after unsuccessful attempts to contact Fossett's family.

Click here for an On the Scene blog by FOX News' Adam Housley.

Officers believe the cards are authentic, sources said.

The bills were tattered and crumpled on the ground; the weather-worn sweatshirt was nearby, Morrow told FOX. Both human and animal hair were found on the clothing.

Morrow said he didn't find any signs of the light plane Fossett was flying when he disappeared last September.

"I have to admit, his name didn't pop in my head immediately," he told FOX.

But Morrow's discovery prompted authorities to assemble a new search team to comb the area, Schienle said.

Fossett was the first person to ride the jet stream around the world in a balloon. He climbed some of the world's tallest and toughest mountains, sailed and set a number of world records.

He was declared legally dead in February.

In August, an attorney for Fossett's widow pleaded for an end to speculation circulating on the Internet that the millionaire balloonist and air adventurer may have faked his own death, possibly because he was heavily in debt.

Fossett, who made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets, took off from a private airstrip in Nevada last September on a solo flight in a light plane.

He never returned, and until now, searchers had found no trace of the plane — though authorities had believed it went down in a rugged region.

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

"It would be nice to get closure," said Ray Arvidson, a scientist at Washington University who worked on Fossett's past balloon flights.

Looking at the tattered condition of his certificate and given his body still hasn't been found, I wonder if perhaps Mr Fossett went looking for help and then died of a wild animal attack.  The Sierra Nevada is home to both bears and cougars which will attack even healthy adult humans.

Sad ending.

RC

[Rooster Cruiser]

I now stand corrected according to this passage:

Wreckage indicated a high-speed impact at about 10,000 feet. Small pieces of human remains were found with the wreckage, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker.

So he may have died at the crash site.  Vultures and other carrion types may have picked his remains clean.  Sad...

My heart goes out to his family, as well as to Barron Hilton from whose Ranch Mr Fosset departed.

RC

[Rooster Cruiser]

The DNA test has come back identifying the bones found near the crash site as belonging to Steve Fosset.  RIP   

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,446464,00.html

MADERA, California —  Authorities said Monday they have positively identified some of Steve Fossett's remains: two large bones found a half-mile from where the adventurer's plane crashed in California's Sierra Nevada.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said DNA tests conducted by the state Department of Justice positively identified the bones as the remains of the millionaire aviator who disappeared last year.

Anderson has declined to say what bones were found, saying he didn't want to cause the family further anguish.

Fossett's widow, Peggy Fossett, released a statement thanking authorities for their work.

Click here for photos | Click here for video

"I am hopeful that the DNA identification puts a definitive end to all of the speculation surrounding Steve's death. This has been an incredibly difficult time for me, and I am thankful to everyone who helped bring closure to this tragedy," she said.

The bones were discovered last week, along with Fossett's tennis shoes and Illinois driver's license, which had animal bite marks on them.

Steve Fossett Fossett disappeared in September 2007 after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton for what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight. Law enforcement, fellow aviators and others launched a costly search that covered 20,000 square miles but turned up empty.

The wreckage of Fossett's plane was discovered last month after a hiker walking off trail in the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes stumbled across Fossett's pilot's license and a wad of weathered $100 bills. Authorities said Fossett likely died on impact.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.