I really wonder if this "looking for somewhere to break the speed record" thing hasn't been way overplayed. You can imagine it yourself... there you are on a beautiful day in an incredibly scenic place, a plane just waiting for you, and with people who you like well enough but have seen plenty of. So you say, "Maybe I'll just go flying for an hour or two, it's such a great day".

And someone says, "Oh, why, what are you planning to do?" And you're way too polite to say, "Nothing much, but it'll be a whole lot more interesting than sitting round yakking with you lot", so you say "Oh, I dunno, I thought maybe I'd, er, maybe look for some big flat lake somewhere, you know, for this speed record thing."

And you take off, and you look at the Sierras 15 mins flying away, and you say to yourself, "Maybe I'll just mosey over there and see if I can find that ridge where I hiked last year, maybe take another look at Yosemite from above".

And of course you go missing and that last thing you ever said to anyone suddenly becomes incredibly important, but you never really meant it.

n5296s

More than likely, n5296s.

It will be interesting to see how much effort the NTSB put in ;)

With little evidence (?), a light single and just a single fatality, it is a regrettably common GA accident :eek: The "unusual" aspect is how well known the fatality was... and I am not sure that is grounds for a much deeper than usual investigation?

NoD

Something along the lines of:

"Is there any obvious sign of a significant aircraft failure (structure/engine/controls)?"

"No"

"File it as NPD"

Is there a guesstimate on how long identifying the human remains (presumably through DNA testing) is going to last? Or is this already done and dusted, so that we're sure it was Steve?

"Or is this already done and dusted, so that we're sure it was Steve?"


Jesus! Another conspiracy theorist! No, Steve gets out of his Decathlon and swaps with a suicidal pilot [who's family will be recompensed by the grateful Steve Fossett] and surely they must look for the tyre tracks of Steve Fossett's escape car hidden nearby, or maybe the witness marks of the alien space craft that has whisked Steve off to the Scientologist's Planet!!! :rolleyes:

How much time was spent on Frank Tallman's crash in the Sierras or Neil Williams' in the Pyrenees?

What possible evidence [other than a note] could explain why another highly experienced pilot hits a granite filled cloud from the remains of the accident?

Oh, come on. I know that twenty years ago, before DNA testing, the NTSB would have examined the tail number, matched that with Steves, and then proclaim Steve dead. But now that we have DNA testing, I know that it is standard procedure to verify the remains through DNA, before Steve is "officially" declared dead.

So all I wanted to know is whether that official declaration has been issued, or whether we're still waiting for that 0.000001% chance that it isn't Steve.

Does a Decathlon have cabin heat ?

Thread creep I know but.........

The World seems to have to require 100% safety, proof, reliability, organic, carbon offset.......

Why do we need the last 0.0000001% of anything? It makes everything So expensive!

Regaining thread.......

Wish there were more Steve Fossetts around and less Al Gores!

No, the world does not require Many in the world (clients) require lawyers. Lawyers and their clients require We all wait and pay....

Pilot DAR

SoCal, thanks.

With both the NTSB investigation and DNA testing expected to take months, I guess there won't be any more news soon.

And if the area is indeed now covered in two feet of snow, even more so.

The debris field is quite large which suggests a glancing impact as opposed to "head on".

The right side cylinder heads / valve covers show damage while the left side shows no apparent damage in the photo.

One photo shows wreakage caught in a tree.

Looks like CFIT.

Perhaps an aerobatic maneuver gone wrong and/or entered too low? At 10,000' we have higher TAS and increased radii for turns and pullouts.

The actual DNA test won't take months. But there is probably a backlog at the state forensics lab. This testing is likely to be deemed a lower priority than DNA tests for active crime cases, so it goes to the back of the queue.

Yes. (10 characters required)

Photo 46 in higher resolutions shows the remains of the burnt-out fuselage structure in a copse which at first glance looks like a jumble of twigs:(

There are a few brightly painted bits, but a good likelihood that they were covered by subsequent snowfalls.

I wouldn't fault any searchers for missing this one.

Would this photo of a propeller suggest that it was not turning at the moment of impact?:confused:

40 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Machaca,
Thanks for the link!
Those photos alone are enough explanation why such scattered wreckage on a hillside outside the 'formal' search area wasn't found before.

Very good question about the cabin heat.
Its a simple shroud around the muffler that vents the air into the cabin. Dangerous as all get out if there is a carbon monoxide leak which just might have been what caused this incident. Atleast that would be consistent with the comments about high noise levels, the probable inverted attitude at impact, the engine developing power but apparently not full power and the pitch control possibly at cruise instead of climb.
Another possibility is bird strike incident.

Recapitulation of Search:

Flight was purely a pleasure flight; it was not to scope out flat racing sites.
He said he would follow a particular road and apparently did so only deviating to take a very scenic route to one of the 14,000 foot peaks he had not yet climbed but was one he intended to climb.
CHP sighting is consistent as to time and place.
Ranchhand Brawley at hill top cell phone conversation with his girlfriend was familiar with the plane and claimed to have seen it heading for Mud Flat near Hawthorne but this appears now to have been given too much weight by the searchers.

Where does the info about pitch and throttle settings come from, and the witness info? First I've seen of those.

As for CO - definitely a possibility, but then this Decathlon must be in a different class from all the Citabrias/Decathlons I've flown, which have howling gales through the cabin at all times from the numerous ventilation holes, intentional and otherwise. otoh since it belonged to the richest hotel-chain owner in the world, I guess it's possible - walnut-panelled Super-D with extra thick pillows and room service anyone?

n5296s