Fossett's Plane Found.
10-02-2008, 12:52 PM
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Fossett's Plane Found.
Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On
No Remains Found In Wreckage
POSTED: 1:58 pm CDT October 1, 2008
UPDATED: 12:04 pm CDT October 2, 2008
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MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. Searchers found the wreckage of Steve Fossett's airplane in California's rugged Sierra Nevada just over a year after the millionaire adventurer vanished on a solo flight, and the craft appears to have hit the mountainside head-on, authorities said Thursday.
Crews conducting an aerial search late Wednesday spotted what turned out to be the wreckage in the Inyo National Forest near the town of Mammoth Lakes, Sheriff John Anderson said. They confirmed around 11 p.m. that the tail number found matched Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane, he said.
"It appeared to me, just looking at the pictures, that it was a head-on crash into the side of a mountain, into a rock," Anderson said during a news conference in Mammoth Lakes. "The plane moved up, in an upward direction for 100 feet or so ... and disintegrated. The engine was found about 300 feet farther than the fuselage."
Anderson said no human remains were found in the wreckage.
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"It's quite often if you don't find remains within a few days, because of animals, you'll find nothing at all," Anderson said.
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.
Searchers began combing the rugged terrain on Wednesday after a hiker found identification documents belonging to Fossett earlier in the week. The 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.
Aviators had previously flown over Mammoth Lakes, about 90 miles south of the ranch, in the search for Fossett, but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane.
The most intense searching was concentrated north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.
A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles. He and his wife lived part-time in Beaver Creek, Col
No Remains Found In Wreckage
POSTED: 1:58 pm CDT October 1, 2008
UPDATED: 12:04 pm CDT October 2, 2008
[NEWSVINE: Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On] [DELICIOUS: Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On] [DIGG: Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On] [FACEBOOK: Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On] [REDDIT: Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On] [RSS] [PRINT: Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On] [EMAIL: Fossett's Plane May Have Crashed Head-On]
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. Searchers found the wreckage of Steve Fossett's airplane in California's rugged Sierra Nevada just over a year after the millionaire adventurer vanished on a solo flight, and the craft appears to have hit the mountainside head-on, authorities said Thursday.
Crews conducting an aerial search late Wednesday spotted what turned out to be the wreckage in the Inyo National Forest near the town of Mammoth Lakes, Sheriff John Anderson said. They confirmed around 11 p.m. that the tail number found matched Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane, he said.
"It appeared to me, just looking at the pictures, that it was a head-on crash into the side of a mountain, into a rock," Anderson said during a news conference in Mammoth Lakes. "The plane moved up, in an upward direction for 100 feet or so ... and disintegrated. The engine was found about 300 feet farther than the fuselage."
Anderson said no human remains were found in the wreckage.
Click here to find out more!
"It's quite often if you don't find remains within a few days, because of animals, you'll find nothing at all," Anderson said.
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.
Searchers began combing the rugged terrain on Wednesday after a hiker found identification documents belonging to Fossett earlier in the week. The 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.
Aviators had previously flown over Mammoth Lakes, about 90 miles south of the ranch, in the search for Fossett, but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane.
The most intense searching was concentrated north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.
A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles. He and his wife lived part-time in Beaver Creek, Col
10-02-2008, 06:43 PM
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RE: Fossett's Plane Found.
This is interesting and sad news at the same time. I've seen a picture of the engine, it was thrown 300 feet up the slope (the length of a football field). If he had gone headlong into that mountain, I'm picturing him crushed inside the cabin with no chance to be thrown clear.
His body was not found. It would seem that there would be at least some remains in the crash site, even if the local animals had gotten to the remains. I wonder if there was some possibility of aircraft trouble, and he bailed out before the plane went in? I believe that he was wearing a 'chute, if I remember the reports correctly. It's still a shame to lose him.
I suppose that another possibility is that he might have seen the mountain at the last instant and veered the plane instinctively, in which case the plane would not have gone in nose first (perhaps it pancaked in???) in which case the body could have been thrown free after all.
It will be interesting to know what further developments occur.
Bob
His body was not found. It would seem that there would be at least some remains in the crash site, even if the local animals had gotten to the remains. I wonder if there was some possibility of aircraft trouble, and he bailed out before the plane went in? I believe that he was wearing a 'chute, if I remember the reports correctly. It's still a shame to lose him.
I suppose that another possibility is that he might have seen the mountain at the last instant and veered the plane instinctively, in which case the plane would not have gone in nose first (perhaps it pancaked in???) in which case the body could have been thrown free after all.
It will be interesting to know what further developments occur.
Bob
