Steve Fossett - 63 Year Old Adventurer Missing in Nevada (REMAINS FOUND & ID'D)

[Nut44x4]

Some remains found in Fossett plane wreckage

MAMMOTH LAKES, California (CNN) -- A small amount of human remains has been found in the wreckage of the plane that adventurer Steve Fossett was flying when he disappeared last year, a National Transportation Safety Board official said Thursday.

A search team that was examining the wreckage, which was found Wednesday at an altitude of about 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes, found "very little" remains among the debris, acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said.

Asked whether the remains were enough for an identification, Rosenker said, "I believe the coroner will be able to do some work."

Earlier Thursday, Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said the single-engine Bellanca appeared to have crashed into the side of a mountain in the Sierra Nevada in eastern California, and the damage was "so severe I doubt someone would've walked away from it."

Fossett was last seen the morning of September 3, 2007, when he took off from the Flying-M Ranch outside Minden, Nevada, on what he said would be a pleasure flight over the Sierra Nevada.  Watch how searchers located the wreckage »

Investigators homed in on the area near Mammoth Lakes on Wednesday after hikers there found a sweatshirt, cash and identification cards with Fossett's name.

The hikers did not find any wreckage; an aerial search discovered the airplane parts about a quarter-mile away, Anderson said.

Ground crews confirmed Wednesday night that the wreckage was Fossett's plane. The sheriff said authorities were not certain whether the cash and sweatshirt belonged to Fossett.

The engine was about 300 feet higher on the mountain than the fuselage and the wings, Anderson said.

An NTSB team arrived Thursday to investigate the crash. Rosenker said investigators, based on examinations of the debris, believe that the plane struck the mountain horizontally but not necessarily head-on.

It may take "weeks, perhaps months to have a better understanding of what happened on that mountain that day," he said.  Watch NTSB say crash was "nonsurvivable" »

Fossett's disappearance prompted a search that ultimately included thousands of volunteers, hundreds of officials and dozens of aircraft poring over an area more than twice the size of New Jersey.

The search was officially suspended a year ago Friday, and a Chicago probate court judge declared Fossett dead in February.

Fossett made his money in the financial services industry but became renowned for his daredevil exploits. He was the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon, accomplishing the feat in 2002, and the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling, which he did three years later. 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?eref=ib_topstories

PHOTO OF WRECKAGE at the site. For some reason I can't save it...

[MuffyBee]

I was told by a pilot that flying that type of airplane (symmetrical aerobatic wing), that high (near its ceiling), near mountains with storms and possible rogue wind shears, can be very dangerous.  If an upset occurred, there may have possible very little if no time or altitude to recover.  That was just their opinion. 

[Nut44x4]

Oct 3, 12:30 PM EDT

Discovery of Fossett's plane brings closure

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) -- Thirteen months after millionaire thrill-seeker Steve Fossett mysteriously disappeared, authorities finally know what happened to his small single-engine airplane: It slammed straight into a mountain on a cloudy day.

"It was a hard-impact crash, and he would've died instantly," said Jeff Page, emergency management coordinator for Lyon County, Nev., who assisted in the search.

The debris, hidden from easy view for more than a year, littered an area longer than a football field and nearly as wide of a steep Sierra Nevada mountainside some 10,000 feet above sea level.

It appears to have been a tragic end for the intrepid ballonist, who was scouting locations for an attempt to break the land speed record in a rocket-propelled car. Crews with cadaver dogs located a few personal effects amid the mangled metal, along with a small bone fragment.

"I hope now to be able to bring to closure a very painful chapter in my life," his widow, Peggy, said in a statement. "I prefer to think about Steve's life rather than his death and celebrate his many extraordinary accomplishments."

Search teams planned to hike back out to the site Friday to scour the steep flank for more traces of the missing aviator.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the remains found Thursday were enough to perform DNA tests to determine if they belonged to Fossett.

"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 NTSB acting Chairman Mark Rosenker. "I'm not going to elaborate on what it is."

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson described the finding by one of his lieutenants as an oblong piece of bone, measuring 2 by 1 1/2 inches. Anderson also made a point of saying the bone fragment had not yet been confirmed as human.

"We don't know if it's human. It certainly could be," Anderson told reporters Thursday evening. "I refuse to speculate."

He said it would be sent to a California Department of Justice lab for testing.

Asked about the sheriff's assessment of the physical evidence, NTSB spokesman Terry Williams reaffirmed Rosenker's earlier statement.

"We stick by that. It's human remains," said Williams, who declined to say how the NTSB had arrived at that conclusion.

Meanwhile, California National Guard troops also were scheduled to head to the rugged spot in the Inyo National Forest where searchers located the wreckage of the single-engine plane Fossett was flying when he disappeared more than a year ago. They planned to airlift out the surviving portions of the plane in Blackhawk helicopters so they could be reassembled and examined at a nearby hangar.

Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away at an elevation of 9,700 feet, authorities said.

Fossett, the 63-year-old thrill-seeker, vanished after taking off alone from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

His disappearance spurred a huge search that covered 20,000 square miles, cost millions of dollars and included the use of infrared technology. For a while, many of Fossett's friends held out hope he survived, given his many close scrapes with death over the years. A judge declared him legally dead in February.

The first breakthrough - in fact, the first trace of any kind - came earlier this week when a hiker stumbled across a pilot's license and other ID cards belonging to Fossett a quarter-mile from where the plane was later spotted. Investigators said animals might have dragged the IDs from the wreckage while picking over Fossett's remains.

The area, situated about 65 miles from the ranch, had been flown over 19 times by the California Civil Air Patrol during the initial search, Anderson said. But it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane, given what was known about sightings of Fossett's plane, his travel plans and the amount of fuel he had.

Lt. Col. Ronald Butts, a pilot who coordinated the Civil Air Patrol search effort, said gusty conditions along the mountains' upper elevations hampered the early efforts to search by air, as did the small amount of debris that remained after the plane crashed.

"Everything we could have done was done," Butts said.

As for what might have caused the wreck, Mono County, Calif., Undersheriff Ralph Obenberger said there were large storm clouds over the peaks around Mammoth Lakes on the day of the crash.

http://www.galvnews.com/wire.lasso?report=/dynamic/stories/F/FOSSETT_SEARCH

[MuffyBee]

Officials finish at Fossett site as storm blows in

By TRACIE CONE – 1 hour ago

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) — Investigators finished up Friday at the scene of Steve Fossett's plane crash in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada just as dark clouds rolled in and winds picked up ahead of a storm that threatened to bury any remaining evidence under 2 feet of snow.

They discovered three more bone fragments Friday, said Madera County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Erica Stuart. Like a piece found the day before, they will be sent to a lab to determine whether they are human and a match for Fossett, the famous adventurer.

Teams of volunteers, as well as local and federal search crews, had furiously combed the site for any evidence that could help piece together the mystery of Fossett's plane crash more than a year ago.

Mangled and charred plane parts and other bundles of debris were headed to a warehouse in Sacramento where investigators planned to lay them out for examination. There were a lot of pieces, "consistent with a high-energy impact, which means the aircraft was traveling at great speed," Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a media briefing.

"We'll be looking at the entire fuselage to make sure nothing broke off to cause the accident," he said.

Fossett vanished Sept. 3, 2007, during what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight from a Nevada ranch owned by his friend Barron Hilton.

Despite several searches by air and on the ground over the past year, efforts to find his single-engine plane had been unsuccessful. The break came this week when a hiker found Fossett's identification cards in a remote wilderness area near Mammoth Lake about 65 miles southwest of Hilton's ranch.

Thrill-seeker Fossett gained worldwide fame for 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. Investigators wondered if weather had anything to do with the fatal crash.

"Mr. Fossett is an accomplished aviator who flew very complicated aircraft; yet on this day, he was flying one relatively simple to fly," Rosenker said. "It will take us awhile to understand this very interesting and very tragic accident."

The NTSB is attempting to gather radar and weather data to determine what the conditions were in the area the day of the accident. They hope the radar data will help them pinpoint the time of the crash.

"Maybe we'll be able to grab radar data and get lucky," Rosenker said.

Fossett left the ranch around 9 a.m. and was due for lunch with Hilton at noon. He was last seen about an hour before the planned lunch flying less than 100 feet above the ground not far from the ranch, according to a report last month by the NTSB.

Weather records should allow investigators to "have a better understanding of potential winds, clouds and turbulence. The process is not simple," Rosenker said.

According to the National Weather Service, it was generally clear and calm in the Mammoth Lakes region the morning of the crash. Local officials say some storm clouds did move in, however.

Investigators also have recovered gauges from the plane they hope will show speed and altitude.

Bill Manning, airport and transportation director at Mammoth Yosemite Airport, said the high Sierra is a beautiful but dangerous area to fly, estimating that the region sees three to five small plane crashes every year.

"It's hugely rugged. ... It's a fabulous environment but unforgiving, for sure," he said. "Anytime you fly in the mountains, it's not like you're going to land on a highway. There just aren't many places you can put an airplane down and walk away."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gfmXbQn-RFLHSjd8_s23ytiM6OVAD93JC3M83

[FoolsGold]

No known storm clouds or unusually trecherous winds that day until well after this excellent pilot was overdue.
Birdstrike might result in incapcitation and also might result in wind-blown items being distributed just short of the impact area.

[FoolsGold]

He was last seen about an hour before the planned lunch flying less than 100 feet above the ground not far from the ranch, according to a report last month by the NTSB.

This observation from a hill top at Nine Mile Ranch has always been doubted by some and is ofcourse now being doubted by many more since the location and direction of travel of the reported sighting are each inconsistent with being near the area in which the crash actually took place.

[Nut44x4]

The San Francisco Chronicle (California)
 
October 4, 2008 Saturday
 
Fossett's plane could provide clues
 
As searchers intensified their hunt for human remains, federal investigators helicoptered the remnants of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett's airplane Friday off the lonely mountain slope where he crashed more than a year ago.

Once they reassemble as much of the plane as they can back at a warehouse in Sacramento, analysts hope to determine what caused the acrobatic Bellanca Super Decathlon craft to slam into a granite wall with such force that it shattered into small pieces, leaving virtually no chance of survival for the pilot.

Investigators also will go over radar data from Sept. 3, 2007, the day Fossett took off from a ranch south of Reno, and study weather reports from then to trace his path and the conditions as he flew.

"This is not going to be one that is extremely easy to understand," said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation and Safety Board, the agency leading the investigation. "This could take many months."

Area aviation experts believe Fossett's plane was probably slapped into the mountainside after being buffeted by the eastern Sierra's notorious downdraft or thermal wind gusts.

The wreckage was found 10,000 feet up in the rugged Minaret Range, about 7 miles west of Mammoth Lakes, on Wednesday. The break in the 13-month mystery of what happened to Fossett came two days earlier, when a hiker found some of his papers while walking near the crash site.

Fossett, a 63-year-old commodities trader who set 115 world aviation and sailing records, borrowed the single-engine plane on his last day of life and took off from the tony Flying M Ranch in Nevada for a leisurely jaunt in the air. The ranch is 80 miles south of Reno, and most of the initial monthlong search - one of the nation's most intensive ever - concentrated on a huge area surrounding it.

The fact that Fossett wound up near this ski town about 100 miles from the ranch does not surprise officials, however, considering one of the theories at the time was that he wanted to cruise above U.S. Highway 395, the main road skirting the eastern Sierra and serving Mammoth Lakes. If he turned around to head back north, a logical move would have been to fly above the town and then the peak that he wound up hitting.

Immediately after the discovery of the plane bits, search and rescue teams began combing the steep, rocky terrain for Fossett's remains. A Madera County sheriff's deputy found a 2-inch piece of bone in the area, and it has been sent to the state crime lab for testing to see if it is animal or human, and if it is Fossett's. That testing could take several weeks.

On Friday, helicopters came and went all day at the little Mammoth Lakes municipal airport, taking trackers and cadaver-sniffing dogs to and from the crash site. The assumption is that wild animals dragged off whatever was left of Fossett after the fiery crash, so the challenge is to find parts that can be identified by DNA.

"He's out there, all right - his remains, that is," said Leonard Daughenbaugh, a volunteer with the Inyo County sheriff's search and rescue team who has been looking in the area for two days. "It'll just take some doing finding them.

"It's been quite a while since that crash, you know." 
 
A worker for a private salvage company ties down pieces of wreckage recovered from Steve Fossett's crash site. The remains of the plane will be reassembled in a Sacramento warehouse for analysis. Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:862595581&start=4

[Edward]

Same kind of plane I used to fly. Wonderful aircraft.
I have flown over the same area.
I have got caught in the east side or leward side downdraft with enough elevation to overcome it flying into Tahoe one morning.
It is a scary moment.. Although I do not think this is what happened to Steve's plane. MO.

First reports were 9500 foot elevation. Plane hit straight into the mountain.

All planes want to fly straight and level. If he had a heart attack his plane would just keep on flying straight and level.
I searched for his plane on foot for 2 days in the mountains surrounding Hells kitchen out toward hells half acre on the map.
I was just 50 miles north of where he was found. We are lucky the hiker found the items.

Steve Fossett was known by his friends as a great man with a great sense of humor He was a competitive fellow and a very outgoing attitude.
He was an Eagle Scout in his youth and a graduate of Stanford university. He had a huge life and a million friends..
I am relived to see that his family and his wife have a final answer and are not left to wonder what happened to him.
May God rest his soul.

[Nut44x4]

The San Francisco Chronicle (California)
 
October 5, 2008 Sunday
 
Fossett never stopped pushing the envelope;
NEWS ANALYSIS;
In final flight, adventurer was scouting desert for a location to try to set land speed record
 
The discovery this week of adventurer Steve Fossett's airplane wreck isn't just some yarn about a multimillionaire who took off for a pleasure flight one day, crashed in the mountains and died.

It's a rare tale of mystery, bravery, tenacity and the very essence of the American West. It's about the pitiless ferocity of nature - and about how, whether you are Joe Normal or phenomenally rich and talented, the worst can happen to you with no warning.

Fossett was 63 when he took off in a single-engine acrobatic plane on Sept. 3, 2007, from the Flying M in Nevada, a ranch owned by his pal Barron Hilton, the hotel mogul. Fossett had already set 115 world records in aviation and sailing, including being the first to fly alone around the globe without refueling, and at his age, many might at least have considered slowing down a tad.

But not Fossett.

He'd earned millions in commodities trading in Chicago, where he lived most of the time he also had a home in Carmel, and for decades he'd used his money to go adventuring. That meant swimming the English Channel. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Journeying solo across the world in planes, balloons and boats.

One of the things he was doing in his final hours in the air was scouting for a route in the desert along the Nevada-California border where he could try to set a new land speed record in a high-tech racing car he was having built. And he wasn't just tooling through the skies that day in an ordinary plane - he had borrowed Hilton's Bellanca Super Decathlon, a nifty little aircraft made of aluminum, wood and cloth that could twist and cavort in the air like a sparrow.

And then he disappeared.

Utterly.

Thousands of cops, volunteers and National Guard troops spent a month combing 25,000 square miles looking for him in the biggest manhunt of its kind in U.S. history - another record for Fossett, albeit horribly ironic.

Searchers at risk

Combing the stunningly rugged terrain involved great risk for the searchers, with treacherous winds buffeting their aircraft - the same downdrafts and thermal gusts that experts think probably slammed Fossett's plane into a mountain a year ago. And it wasn't much easier for the trackers on foot: It's easy to get lost in the forbiddingly craggy alpine Sierra Nevada and the sun-baked desert, with thousands of ravines to fall into. Hunting through these areas requires true wilderness skill.

After the big search was suspended, private crews made their own stabs at it in the following months, one as recent as September, each having to surmount the same daunting challenges in the air and on foot. In all, the original search cost $1.6 million. Fossett's widow, Peggy, spent an additional $1 million on a private hunt of her own.

No one found anything.

Fossett had already been notable for his world records and the bravado he inspired in his fellow adventurers and admirers around the world, including Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson.

Rumors and theories

But now he was even more notable as the Amelia Earhart of our time, the affable flier who disappeared in 1937 and might never be found.

The same crazy theories that sprang up after Earhart vanished over the Pacific soon emerged about Fossett: He was hiding on an island, he ran away for a love tryst, space aliens snatched him. All highly unlikely, but consuming great attention in fringe corners and the foreign press as far away as Australia.

After all the hot-air speculation, the reality of what happened to him finally snapped into focus this past week when a Mammoth Lakes man walking his dog at about 10,000-foot elevation in the Minaret Range found some of Fossett's identification papers in the pine needles. It was short work from there for search and rescue teams to locate the missing Bellanca Super Decathlon - it was lying, as many professional trackers had thought a year ago it would be, smashed into the side of a wooded peak in pieces so small they couldn't be spotted from the air.

Fossett's body has not been found, only bone fragments that may or may not turn out to be his. But barring a space-alien-style anomaly, there is no doubt that he is dead. He was already officially declared dead in February by a judge. Crash experts said there is no way anyone could have survived the ferocious impact of his plane against the granite wall, and Fossett had no parachute.

What really resonated about Fossett's life and its abrupt end was how unusual he was, how dogged the search for his wreck was - and how in the end, even a multimillionaire with access to the best flight expertise in the world can die alone in the mountains like any other pilot who has a moment of horrific luck.

Admire him or not, the saga of Fossett and those who hunted for him speaks of many things we hold dear here in the West: The can-do willingness to push the envelope, the eagerness to plunge into the wilderness for a cause, and the unforgiving challenge of the vast, rugged expanse of mountains and desert that we call home.

Fossett's was not a typical story.

We are unlikely to see many like it again. 
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:862881158&start=3

Waiting on final notice of the remains found being identified as Steve's before I mark and move this one. No doubt in my mind, but I want stated  proof before we move it.

[MuffyBee]

Waiting on final notice of the remains found being identified as Steve's before I mark and move this one. No doubt in my mind, but I want stated  proof before we move it.

I agree with you on this Nut. 

[MuffyBee]

Oct 5, 10:58 AM EDT

Fossett plane recovery might not resume this year


MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) -- California officials say recovery efforts around the site of adventurer Steve Fossett's downed plane might not resume until summer.

Snowfall ended the search in the Sierra Nevada on Friday. Madera County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Erica Stuart says she does not expect weather conditions to improve enough for crews to return to the site this year.

Authorities say they completed most of what they needed to do Friday when they removed debris from Fossett's plane and found three more bone fragments.

The bone fragments will be sent to a lab to determine whether they are human and a match for Fossett.

Fossett vanished in September 2007 during what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight. Wreckage from his plane was discovered last week.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FOSSETT_SEARCH_WEATHER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[Nut44x4]

Oct 30, 8:46 PM EDT

New bone find encourages Fossett investigators
 
MADERA, Calif. (AP) -- Searchers have found what appear to be two large human bones near the crash site of Steve Fossett's plane in California's Sierra Nevada, along with the adventurer's tennis shoes and driver's license, authorities said Thursday.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said at a news conference that the bones were found Wednesday about a half-mile east of the crash site. Investigators have sent them to a Department of Justice testing lab and should know in about a week whether they are Fossett's.

Anderson said searchers also found Fossett's tennis shoes, his Illinois driver's license and credit cards. The shoes and driver's license had animal bite marks on them.

"This reinforces our theory that animals dragged him away," Anderson said.

Previous bone fragments discovered near the wreckage were either found to be not
 
human or too small for DNA tests. Investigators have completed their work on the ground and do not plan to resume search efforts, Anderson said.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, said in a statement Thursday that the discovery of bones was "another step in the process of completing the investigation into the tragic accident that took Steve's life."

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FOSSETT_SEARCH?SITE=KMOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-10-30-20-46-57

[MuffyBee]

Oct 30, 8:46 PM EDT

New bone find encourages Fossett investigators

By TRACIE CONE
Associated Press Writer
 MADERA, Calif. (AP) -- Searchers have found what appear to be two large human bones near the crash site of Steve Fossett's plane in California's Sierra Nevada, along with the adventurer's tennis shoes and driver's license, authorities said Thursday.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said at a news conference that the bones were found Wednesday about a half-mile east of the crash site. Investigators have sent them to a Department of Justice testing lab and should know in about a week whether they are Fossett's.

Anderson said searchers also found Fossett's tennis shoes, his Illinois driver's license and credit cards. The shoes and driver's license had animal bite marks on them.

"This reinforces our theory that animals dragged him away," Anderson said.

Previous bone fragments discovered near the wreckage were either found to be not human or too small for DNA tests. Investigators have completed their work on the ground and do not plan to resume search efforts, Anderson said.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, said in a statement Thursday that the discovery of bones was "another step in the process of completing the investigation into the tragic accident that took Steve's life."

Fossett vanished in September 2007 after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton during what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight.

His disappearance spurred a huge search that covered 20,000 square miles, cost millions of dollars and included the use of infrared technology.

For a while, many of Fossett's friends held out hope he survived, given his many close scrapes with death over the years. But a judge declared him legally dead in February, and his plane wreckage was found this month after a hiker came across his pilot identification cards amid a pile of weathered $100 bills west of Mammoth Lakes in the eastern Sierra.

Authorities have said Fossett slammed into a mountainside at about 10,000 feet and probably died instantly. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Fossett made a fortune in the Chicago commodities market and gained worldwide fame for 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.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FOSSETT_SEARCH?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[MuffyBee]

Fossett ordeal may be over for family

By Alton K. Marsh

Newly discovered bone fragments found at the crash site of adventurer Steve Fossett on Oct. 29 are believed to be human, according to California’s Madera County Sheriff John P. Anderson. The fragments will now be tested for DNA that could link them to Fossett. Testing had been inconclusive, or negative, on fragments found earlier in October.

“Pending DNA results, I believe our coroner’s investigation is over and the Fossett family will finally have closure,” Anderson said.

To make certain a thorough search was conducted before the winter season set in, three Madera County Sheriff’s deputies, along with five volunteers from the Mono County Sheriff’s search and rescue team, returned to the site one last time on Oct. 29. Before the day was over, the recovery team found a number of items that include: skeletal remains (bones), a pair of tennis shoes, credit cards, and Steve Fossett’s Illinois state driver’s license.

The bones found Oct. 29—a little over a half-mile east of the Steve Fossett crash site in the Ansel Adams Wildreness—are believed to be human.

There were no remains found when searches combed through the crash site on Oct. 2, although they did extract what initially appeared to be a single bone fragment that day. On the following day, search crews found three more thumbnail-sized specimens after the wreckage of the plane had been removed. An anthropologist analyzed the pieces discovered that day, along with the first four fragments found earlier in the month. He was able to rule out all but two.

Unable to determine whether or not those two bones were human, Anderson had them delivered to a state forensics lab to test for human DNA profiling. The results were inconclusive.

October 30, 2008
http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2008/081030fossett.html

[Edward]

Madera, CA  -- 
Authorities have positively identified two large bones found a half mile from the crash site of Steve Fossett's plane in California's Sierra Nevada as the adventurer's remains.

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

Authorities found the bones last week. They also discovered Fossett's tennis shoes and Illinois driver's license, both with animal bite marks on them.


http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=7781180&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Goodbye my old friend.
I am happy that somebody found you.
May your soul rest in peace.

[MuffyBee]

"High Flight"

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

[Nut44x4]

DNA links bones near plane crash site to Fossett

Last Update: 5:33 pm

MADERA, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say they've 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 Monday that DNA tests conducted by the state Department of Justice positively identified the bones as the remains of the former Chicago millionaire aviator who disappeared last year.

Authorities found the bones last week. They also discovered Fossett's tennis shoes and Illinois driver's license, both with animal bite marks on them.

Anderson says Fossett would have died on impact and that it's not unusual for animals to drag away remains.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=7604a206-9d57-493d-9f9a-ea25298b5ab2

RIP Steve, RIP

[FoolsGold]

At long last these senseless posts about 'he wanted to run away and hide' or 'he wanted to escape his debts' can end once and for all.

There is still doubt as to whether his plane was inverted at impact, whether there were cracks in the muffler that might allow carbon monoxide into the cockpit, what his route of flight was, etc. but there is no doubt about the impact forces: no one survived those, not even briefly.

[MuffyBee]

At long last these senseless posts about 'he wanted to run away and hide' or 'he wanted to escape his debts' can end once and for all.

There is still doubt as to whether his plane was inverted at impact, whether there were cracks in the muffler that might allow carbon monoxide into the cockpit, what his route of flight was, etc. but there is no doubt about the impact forces: no one survived those, not even briefly.

I too am glad the rumors have come to a halt.  Have any that posted those things apologized to his widow or his family?  Most likely not. 

I'm glad Steve Fossett's remains were found and he can be laid to rest.  I wonder what, if any other information  about the cause of the crash can be found from the remains of the plane wreckage?  If Steve died right on impact, it's better he didn't have to suffer. 

[MuffyBee]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FOSSETT_SEARCH?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Jul 9, 3:46 PM EDT

NTSB blames downdrafts in Steve Fossett crash

By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal safety officials say downdrafts probably caused the plane crash that killed entrepreneur Steve Fossett nearly two years ago.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that Fossett's plane struck mountainous terrain near Mammoth Lakes, Calif., following an encounter with downdrafts. Officials say the downdrafts exceeded the ability of his Bellanca 8KCAB-180 to recover through climbing.

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.

Fossett gained worldwide fame for setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. He was the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon.