Wreckage Confirmed As Fossett's Plane

Rescuers confirmed yesterday that the wreckage of a small plane spotted on a remote mountainside in northern California was that of the adventurer Steve Fossett, missing for more than a year.

Fossett's body has not been found, but items recovered at the scene and the nature of the crash site suggest that he could not have survived the impact.

The confirmation comes three days after a hiker discovered personal items belonging to Fossett in a remote part of the 3,000-square-mile Inyo National Forest in the Sierra Nevada, near the tourist area of Mammoth Lakes.

An aerial search was launched on Wednesday and the wreckage of a small plane was spotted at 3,000 meters, with rescuers reaching the rugged mountainside site yesterday.

"It was a head-on crash into the side of a mountain, into a rock," the Madera county sheriff, John Anderson, told a news conference. "The plane disintegrated. We found the engine 300 feet from the fuselage."

"The crash looked so severe I doubt if someone would have walked away from it," Anderson said. "There was no body in the plane. We have not found any human remains at the crash site."

Anderson added that it was not unusual to find no human remains. "It's quite often if you don't find remains within a few days, because of animals you'll find nothing at all."

The items found by the hiker, Preston Morrow, who said he was "way, way off" established trails, included $1,000 in $100 bills, Fossett's pilot's licence, a membership card in his name for the Soaring Society of America and a fleece. Morrow, a local sports shop owner, said his initial reaction was, "Wow, hundred dollar bills."

Fossett, a wealthy financial broker turned adventurer, went missing in September last year when he took off in a single engine Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon, an aerobatics plane. His disappearance led to the largest air and ground search in US history, with rescuers combing an area of 17,000 square miles. Three private rescue efforts were subsequently launched.

Fossett took off in the blue-and-white plane from the million-acre Flying M ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. The plane was one of several kept at the ranch for the use of guests.

While the initial rescue efforts focused on an area close to Yerington, Nevada, where Fossett started his journey, the wreckage was found 120 miles away. The adventurer, who had no flight plan, left with the words "I head for the south". He was as good as his word: the Mammoth Lakes area is directly south of Yerington.

Fossett, who was 63, was thought to have been searching for a dry lake for an attempt on the land speed record. Known in the UK for his ballooning exploits with Sir Richard Branson, Fossett was an experienced survivalist who was the first person to encircle the globe in a balloon.

"They're definitely authentic belongings, it was his pilot license, his driver's license, it was also a membership card to the National Aeronautic Association which gave Stephen an award," Branson told Sky News. "He also often carried $100 bills with him, so we are certain that these are genuine findings."

Morrow spotted the dollar bills under pine needles early on Tuesday. He returned later that day with his wife and friends and they found the other items, including Fossett's green Federal Aviation Administration identification, stating his name as James Stephen Fossett.

Morrow initially tried to contact the Fossett family, without success. He only contacted authorities two days later, when he realized that Fossett was the name of the missing adventurer.

Fossett's wife Peggy issued a statement on Wednesday saying that she was hopeful that the crash site would be found. The couple were married for 39 years. At her request, a judge in Chicago declared Fossett dead earlier this year.

A police officer and a commercial pilot had previously reported seeing what they thought was Fossett's plane in the Mammoth Lakes area, but rescuers had been unable to locate any remains.

Rescuers were fortunate to find the wreckage. It was discovered in the Ansel Adams Wilderness section of the national forest, where the first snows of the year are expected this weekend. Snow could have buried the wreckage, as well as making the area inaccessible.

"It's very hard to see by air; there's so many crevices, so many rocks, so many crazy shapes that unless you're looking literally a few feet from it, it would be very hard to see," said Rusty Aimer, chief executive of Aviation Experts company. "Everybody was saying that some day some hiker would run into the wreckage, and here it is, that's almost exactly what's happened."

Profile

Swimmer, mountaineer, sailor, pilot, balloonist - there seemed no limit to Stephen Fossett's derring-do. By the time he disappeared at 63, Fossett, left, had accumulated a catalog of sporting achievements, including 93 aviation world records, and 23 in sailing. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, but raised in Garden Grove, California, Fossett climbed his first mountain at the age of 12. At college in Stanford, he swam across the San Francisco Bay as a stunt. Later in life he swam the English Channel. He pursued a business career in the 1970s and 1980s, making a fortune as a trader on the Chicago stock exchange. But by the 1990s, he was tiring of the financial world and turned his attention to the outdoors. He was best known for a number of ballooning records, becoming the first person to fly solo around the world non-stop, in 2002.