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We all knew he was dead but maybe the family can get some closure now... hopefully anyway.
RIP Steve, you were one of my heros... Pushed the envelope on everything he did.
California authorities said they have spotted wreckage of a plane in an area where a hiker discovered identification cards belonging to Steve Fossett, the millionaire adventurer who vanished more than a year ago after embarking on a solo flight.
If this is being discussed somewhere, I apologize. I couldn't find it.
I admired just about everything this guy did. Put a mountain in front of him, he'd climb it. Give him a challenge, he'd answer it. If I had the ability to pick someone I'd like to be, Fosset would have been pretty high on the list.
Moral: if you disappear, no one's looking for you very long unless you're cute like Jonbenet or Caylee.
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This is odd too:
Mr. Morrow, a 43-year-old ski shop owner, told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that he was hiking “way, way off” the established trails in the Ansel Adams Wilderness section of the two-million-acre Inyo National Forest when he first spotted a bunch of $100 bills. He then noticed the laminated cards with Mr. Fossett’s name but did not notify the authorities until Tuesday because it took him a day to recall who Mr. Fossett was, he told KNBC."
In other words he wanted to be darn sure the cash he found was all of it.
Probably had a heart attack during flight or something.
I'm betting on a mechanical failure of some sort, probably engine-related. A (borrowed) single-engine plane in the high Sierra doesn't leave much room for error w/ mechanical failure. If he couldn't maintain altitude, he helplessly flies head-on into a mountain at some point.
Fossett, 63, disappeared on September 3, 2007, after taking off in a plane he borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.
[krnv.com...]
Fortunately, it looks like this mystery will be solved. Odd that the ID/cash was found a quarter-mile from the "unsurvivable" crash site.
The bills were tattered and crumpled on the ground; the weather-worn sweatshirt was nearby, Morrow told FOX. Both human and animal hair were found on the clothing.
[foxnews.com...]
but thought it odd no remains were reported found in the vicinity
Morrow's the hiker that found the stuff. He said at first he wasn't even sure who Fosset was, that the name didn't register. I was wondering how that could be. I thought the entire world knew who Steve Fosset was. Then I realized it was probably because I was so impressed by his exploits that I even knew about him.
I saw an interview with the Sheriff last night. He was like, "Well, we've got animals up here that will eat a man... bears, mountain lions, etc..." They were asking about the possibility of finding human remains and he was basically saying - not likely.
And they do, eat people I mean. I saw bear on a regular basis. Huge brown bears that had tipped over 600 pound dumpsters on their sides and were rummaging around for discarded pizza crusts. Mammoth Lakes is a ski town and it's pretty remote and way up in the mountians. Our encroachment on their habitat has lessened their fear of us. Our casual disregard of waste products and the ease with which we return them to the earth has had the effect of encouraging wildlife to come even closer and closer to us. We're not talking Teddy bears here either. We're talking about maul you and rip your head off in 3 easy installments kind of bears. Big bears. Bears that can eat a man and leave very little proof behind that they were even there.
If he'd survived the crash at all, the location would have made it difficult to find help, regardless of how experienced he was. Fosset was a man's man and he was a survivor. All bets were off that day though.
Frank Taylor, writer of Google Earth Blog...learned from a commenter on his blog that the FAA put out a temporary no-fly restriction to prevent pilots from flying over the area in support of the investigation.Taylor deduced that must have been where the crash occurred, and zoomed in on the FAA's coordinates. The final piece that completed the puzzle was a photo of the crash site from the Los Angeles Times.
[blog.wired.com...]
