Hunt for Fossett grinds to a halt: police

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The hunt for missing aviator Steve Fossett has ground to a virtual standstill, police said Monday, two weeks after the adventurer's plane vanished over the Nevada wilderness.

Nevada State police spokesman Chuck Allen told AFP the search for Fossett had been dramatically scaled back with only two grounded aircraft on standby and "four or five" military helicopters now deployed in the hunt.

At one stage during the search for 63-year-old Fossett -- who has not been heard from since taking off from a private airstrip in Nevada on September 6 -- around 45 aircraft were patrolling the area.

However Allen said the Civil Air Patrol had wound down their operations after completing their searches of an estimated 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers) of rugged mountain terrain.

"The Civil Air Patrol feel that they have completed their search of 98 percent of the ground that needed to be covered," Allen told AFP.........
.

To anyones knowledge has the identification of any of the six (or so) aircraft found during the search been released?

Perhaps he's done a "Reggie Perrin".... any leather gloves or sunglasses found on the apron?? (go look up on Wiki any non UKer's)
Would he have any reason to disappear?

Sorry, they found 6 other aircraft while searching?! Is that right?

This is really sad as it seems fairly certain that the outcome won't be good. The idea of not (maybe never) knowing what has happened to someone is very sobering - I can't imagine what his family must be going through.

Yep, Gingerbread Man, apparantly so!

All unrelated wreckages, the question posed was whether anyone was AWARE of these missing aircraft or were they a complete surprise?!

I find it hard to believe that six different pilots (and poss pax) could have disappeared without anyone looking for them - I'm sure there's not that many homeless people with access to aircraft? :confused:

Some of the six discovered aircraft have apprently been missing for years.

I did see a note somewhere (sorry, didn't bookmark the source) that, after verification of various records, five out of the six wrecks were known accident sites.

Search now called off officially. Inevitable, and sad

Where did you get that from ? His site says otherwise.....

http://www2.skynews.com.au/news/article.aspx?id=190511

:(

uk.msn.com are saying:
Fossett search called off

http://estb.msn.com/i/83/98C13EB0B09...3AC8B2CA2B.jpg






Authorities have stopped searching for missing US adventurer Steve Fossett.
In the most extensive search ever mounted in the western US state of Nevada, air crews have found no sign of Fossett, the first person to pilot a balloon solo around the world in 2002.
Mr Fossett took off alone in a single-engine air plane on September 3 from a private air strip in Nevada.
Spokesman Chuck Allen of the Nevada Department of Public Safety said the search is being scaled back.
But he said the authorities are hopeful Fossett may be alive.
Air crews are on standby to fly to possible crash sites, a spokesman for Nevada's public safety department said.

In my book 'scaled down' does not mean 'called off' - there's still hope.
rts

Now CNN (as of yesterday) say "likely tracks" found by Airforce
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/25/steve.fossett.ap/


It has been a surprise to me that given the supposed coverage of USA Airspace by AWACS, that some of this information has not come to light earlier.....

I hope their is a conclusion to this soon..... one way or another.
I have helped with over 2,500 pics from the AmazonTurk / Google collaboration, so lets still hold hope for a while longer.


Ian.

Ian, your supposition is wrong, hence the surprise.

dvv,

Let me put it another way.......

Having only driven from Yosemite National Park to Las Vegas over 3 days last month, I am very aware of the topography of the Valleys and Mountain ranges in that region.

To inspect the valley floors, Steve would probably be well below normal Radar coverage, so any "traces" the military have, must surely have come from Aircraft bourne systems on the day of flight that are looking down to the ground.

Why has it taken 3 weeks for any relevant traces to be found?
(If I read the report correctly)

That time could be the difference betweeen life and death.


Regards,

FS

The military observe radar tracks for the obvious reasons of defence of the Country and counter surveillance when requested.

Sadly, it seems that CNNs ever decreasing accuracy in reporting the facts and willingness to screen anything which gets ratings has pounced again.

In this particular instance, it would have taken a specifically dedicated aircraft to be following tracks in the vicinity of Fossets last known flight, to have picked up any tracks and, if a dedicated aircraft had been on such a mission, it would have almost been under instruction to report where they first picked up the track and where it ended, no more than that.
Thereafter, the relevant intelligence services would have assessed whether it was likely to be worth following up in terms of it being relevant to their investigation.

If not, they wouldn't have concerned themselves with it for a second longer than necessary and would have persued other leads.

The fact that someone was missing was probably of no relevance to what they were doing, or could have done to help.

Doesn't look good :(

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...xyEiQD8S1I9UG0

...compared to those in, say, the Renaissance...

Any news?
 

Unbelievable that after all the effort nothing turned up.
I just googled for news and there's not much.
On www.stevefossett.com I read that on oct 19th the (privately funded) search was still on.
Any other news?

I Agree!
 

I agree, I find it amazing that someone can just plain disappear in this modern day and age! You'd have thought with the technology available to the American government in the shape of satellites that can read news papers from orbit, it wouldn't be difficult to find a plane would you!

I hope if he has paid the ultimate price that it was quick and he didn't suffer!

Times like these I always think of the poem.

"Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth" by John Magee Jnr

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 wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Spru!

I am certain that (unless he was under cloud) the technology does exist for finding him.

But the chances of it being put to that use, potentially revealing the capability, is about the same as HMRC being able to approach the GCHQ to help them crack a secret code in your encrypted PDA if you are a builder and are suspected of doing cash jobs :)

The SKY News website is reporting that two teams are to resume the search on foot, concentrating on a smaller area although I don't have the details of that area or their resources.
This must be the ultimate "needle in a haystack" search & I don't see what else they can do after this if it reveals nothing, but good luck to them and his family anyway.

One news source is reporting aircraft wreckage in the area. Closure for the family if true....


Teletext National News - Fossett 'wreckage' find

Also from the BBC ....
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Fossett searchers 'spot wreckage'

Not until they find his remains, I'd suggest, which I hope they do, or the conspiracy theorists will have way too much ammunition.

Don't know the area (obviously), but surpising that a square search wasn't done quickly just to check the immediate vicinity.
:confused:

According to the news, the plane hit the terrain straight in, and the engine was a long way from the rest. Completely mangled. He wouldn't have walked anywhere.

LA Times reporting that they have found a bone fragment so DNA testing should confirm one way or the other. Hopefully Steve died instantly in the crash.

It seems that the location is outside the area of the intensive search box. Although people have bemoaned the fact that Fossett set off without leaving details or a flight plan, surely that was part of the pleasure for him of just casually jumping in the aircraft and flying wherever he felt like in that beautiful wilderness area. He paid the price but surely we can all understand why he would do it. I certainly do when most of my flying here in England is constrained inside regulated airspace boxes:(

Steve Fosset missing
 

Surely someone as experienced as Steve Fossett did not fall victim to a stuffed cloud, Most other things except for a major structural failure would have given time for a mayday.

He may have been out of VHF contact. He was certainly out of radar contact.

Also if heading for a mountain (which is not normally something that gradually creeps up on you) you aren't going to be making radio calls.

I assume he was an instrument capable pilot - was he? If so, this is a mystery.

Steve Fosset missing
 

Surely someone as experienced as Steve Fossett did not fall victim to a stuffed cloud, Most other things except for a major structural failure would have given time for a mayday.

He doesn't seem to be in the FAA database anymore, but I am pretty sure he had an IR. However, the plane would probably have had minimal sophisticated nav kit - so if in temporary cloud could easily result in CFIT.

On the otherhand, the terrain at the crash site has a very sharp change in pitch (roughly 2:15 on the way and then 3:1 at the crash site), he would have had pretty limited climb performance at 11000 feet. It seems pretty likely he thought he was going to clear the ridge and then couldn't maneuver out of the crescent.

In the US you need an IR to fly above FL180, which he did on his round the world trip. (There are glider pilots who have an IR just so they can do this).

The valley he was in is quite wide, I've flown through it and it doesn't seem like a canyon. I measured it on Google Earth, there is plenty of room to turn especially in a Decathlon - I've practised canyon turns in one and it is amazing how little space you need. It's hard to see how he could have flown straight into a mountain like that unless he was in cloud.

It's all very strange.

n5296s

Incapacitated at the controls
 

Is it not possible that Steve Fossett may have been incapacitated due to a sudden illness and was incapable of flying his aircraft ?

This seems a much more likely set of events than people questioning the mans flying ability .

I find the probability that the guy has had a heart attack or maybe stroke or seizure very high .

This would go some way to explaining the mystery as to how he could fly the aircraft into a mountainside .

After all Mr Fossett was in his 60's and could quite easily have an undiagnosed medical condition.

My friend ( just turned 50 ) seemed in perfectly good health and had recently passed all his medicals yet he had a massive heart attack just 6 hours after arriving
home from a flight to Malaga and back ( As Captain ).

There was absolutly no indication that my friend was in any way ill or suffering from heart problems . Thanfully he is alive and well but retired . Although we always wonder what could have happened had he been flying and become incapacitated .

I feel very sorry for all concerned but i bet the Fossett family are actually relieved to finally find out what happened to Their Steve .

The conspiracy theory will be know more and those that started it are looking rather stupid now .

R.I.P

Agree, a couple of things don't quite gel here. I guess we can discount any doubts about SF's flying abilities. Also, a man of his experience wouldn't have got caught out in a mountain valley.

What intrigues me are two things:
1) if indeed he was looking for a large, flat area to break the land speed record, the Mammoth Lakes area isn't exactly the place to go looking
2) apparently the a/c flew straight into the mountain. Straight. I find it very hard to believe that a pilot of SF's experience would approach a ridge head-on.

All very weird indeed

dicksorchard,
Quite possible...
But there seems to be little point in speculating about that, especially since it happened over a year ago.
Let's give the NTSB time to examine the wreck site, and see if they can come to any conclusion as to "probable cause".
Anything else is now little more than sensationalism.

CJ

Surely if you are looking for a large flat area, you................ ............... ................ get a MAP!!!

You don't get into a plane and set off into a load of terrain.

Did he actually say to somebody he was off to look for a large flat area? Is that statement verifiable? It sounds completely bonkers. The USA is so well mapped. Even google earth gives you hi-res pictures for most of it.

This time last year the FAI conference in Rhodes was to have presented Steve with one of the top awards. It was a sad occasion with the news we had then.

Steve was an adventurer par excellence in many types of aircraft. I believe he was an ATP as well as PPL etc. More particularly, in view of the location of the accident in relation to his experience, he was a world record breaking glider pilot. Not in the flatlands but in the Alps of New Zealand and the Andes of Chile / Argentina. He knew the mountains, wave, turbulence and the severe dangers. In my humble view it is highly unlikely he would make the sort of mistake to fly straight into a mountain unless he was either disorientated by sudden cloud formation, or I would hazard a guess, incapacitated. It happens to others.
Steve was an inspiration to those who seek adventure in the skies. I have found some of the wilder speculation here and elsewhere quite appalling.

May he rest in peace in the knowledge he got out of life the maximum, which most of us aviators can only dream of most of the time. Life is not a dress rehearsal. Enjoy!

Well said David. We should all rejoice in the great things he did and not degrade his great name with some of the silly and unnecessary speculation that appears here. If I can break even one of his 121 records I would be so proud.

b b

Like allways there will be contributory factors. The questions is just if we will ever find out the truth given the time since the accident and the lack of human remains.

He would have known of (and undoubtedly practiced) hammerhead turns to get out of the tightest of spots, and have known about the risks of going IFR in that region if there was cloud at all.

So my bet is on either physical incapacitation or a mechanical major malfunction such as stuck elevators/ailerons etc both PRIOR to the impact.

We lost a great pilot, but he died whilst practicing what he loved..... RIP