Search teams found the wreckage of missing adventurer Steve Fossett’s airplane in the Inyo National Forest, authorities said Thursday.
After an aerial search late Wednesday spotted what appeared to be wreckage near the town of Mammoth Lakes, ground crews were dispatched to the site, Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said. They confirmed around 11 p.m. that the tail number matched Fossett’s single-engine Bellanca plane, he said. The aircraft appeared to have crashed head-on into the side of a mountain, according to the sheriff. Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away.
Anderson said no human remains were found in the wreckage. 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. The search began after a hiker stumbled upon three identification cards and $1005 in cash apparently belonging to Fossett in the area. The plane 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. The plane crashed about 90 miles south of the ranch. Anderson said the steep, rugged area around the wreckage site had been flown over 19 times by the California Civil Air Patrol during the initial search for Fossett, which covered a total of 20,000 square miles.A judge declared the famed aviator legally dead in February.
Why do they insist on still calling him an ‘Adventurer” instead of ‘batshit-stupid millionaire with no common sense’?
#1. For some people, there is more to life than sitting in your mom’s basement staring at you computer and playing with your pud.
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
There’s something about mountain thermals that make me wonder why he bothered flying where he did.
#4–balbas==I’m not interested enough to look it up==time and place but thermals are almost NEVER an issue in mountain flying. Wave flows over mountain peaks and ridge lines is a concern with any wind at all within about 3000 feet.
Flying straight into a mountain sounds like a heart attack or hypoxia to me.
Ballooning and flying is not batshit crazy although he may have been.
#6 “sounds like a heart attack or hypoxia to me.”
Maybe heart attack, definitely not high enough altitude for hypoxia.
#6–Paddy==you seem to have singled me out to disagree with. Thats GRRREAT!!
So, how high did the aircraft ascend to during the trip? Was he a smoker? Did he have a cold?
Stick to opinion issues where facts have no relevancy.
#7 “you seem to have singled me out to disagree with”
No, I don’t really look at the ID of the poster. Stupid posts just stick out and I comment on them. If you hadn’t signed them the result would be the same.
#8–Paddy==I agree you are generally non-observant, ill informed, and hardly every provide any basis for your posts.
“So, how high did the aircraft ascend to during the trip? Was he a smoker? Did he have a cold?”
Impress us with the basis for your opinion.
#4
“There’s something about mountain thermals that make me wonder why he bothered flying where he did.”
He thought he was too rich to consider the thermals a threat.
I’m still waiting for them to find the bones.
#11 “I’m still waiting for them to find the bones.”
Keep waiting. The engine was found several hundred feet from the crash site.
I remember a car crash on a mountain road when I was 13-14. It took them two days to find the driver. They finally found his body 50′ up in a tree. His body had been pierced by a branch and he was hanging there. The car was only doing ~50 mph…
Yes, strange that there were no remains. I’ve heard rumors that he might have disappeared on purpose. If they never find any remains, it’s possible he bailed out with a parachute and let the plane smash into the mountain.
…just sayin’
#2 – Actually I’m sitting in my own shop after walking here this morning from my home that I also own. Neither of which have basements.
But then, I’m not a stupid ignorant/arogant american millionaire who thinks that is he has enough money that the mountains would move apart to make way for me if I stupidly flew my ill-equipped light plane at them (well okay, I’m a bit arrogant). You still don’t say why he should be called an ‘adventurer’ when all hes good at is wasting money (his right) doing stupid stunts which benefit nobody and nothing except his own over-inflated ego, and desire to best Richard Branson at something.
Perhaps ‘stupid millionaire stuntman’ would be a better label…
>>It took them two days to find the driver.
They can have as much time as they need. His wife (maybe the reason he wanted to disappear?) has plenty of money to finance a search.
If they never find a shred of remains (fingers, toes, skull, ribs, whatever) I don’t think the idea that he pulled a DB Cooper can be ruled out. It’s not like he’s at the bottom of the WTC under fifty million tons of rubble. And they found THOSE remains.
>>The engine was found several hundred feet
>>from the crash site.
So, widen the perimeter to a mile or two. They declared him dead after just a few months (with no body); that usually takes 7 years. They can look a little harder for his remains.
I didn’t see that in the story. Got a link??
Questions remain unanswered.
#15
You know what’s kinda strange. They found the money and now a sweater, a long way from the crash site.
An animal wouldn’t have drug those items…
Maybe he did bail…
Officials Say Body Parts Found Among Steve Fossett’s Plane Wreckage
He was a professional risk taker. Such people normally end up dead or mangled.
I’m sorry for his family. The rest was a given the only question being when and if his remains would show up.
Hmmm… I guess DNA will tell.
A guy like this would much rather go out this way, than waste away in some hospital. I get it.
More to the point why is this even important.
Hold on, you’re all focusing on the wrong story.
You’re telling me this hiker reported $1000 in cash?
#17 – O’
>>Officials Say Body Parts Found Among Steve
>>Fossett’s Plane Wreckage
Well, assuming that the DNA evidence pans out, I guess I’ll have to concede the point to O’Furniture.
Some of the local wildlife looked a bit more plump than usual. Yum, yum.
I’m sure he just had himself cloned, then killed the clone off to cover his own death.
We all know the fix is in on this one.
Another possibility: t-storms lashed the plane, a lightning bolt, and he bailed. Plane slammed into mountain, he didn’t survive the jump and …
This just in: Fossett found alive washing dishes for a restaurant in Mammoth Lakes. Apparently suffering from memory loss.
The Hollywood version.