Posted on 09/14/2007 6:20:20 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
RENO, Nev. - Authorities investigating the disappearance of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett said Thursday they've ruled out some of the more unlikely explanations for why they haven't found his plane, including the possibility he wanted to vanish.
No trace has been found of his single-engine plane despite a small air force that has scoured the canyons and hillsides along the Sierra Nevada's eastern front for 11 days, raising the prospect that he's just not there.
Rich, famous and apparently happy in his pursuits of adventure, Fossett had been flying on a scouting mission for a dry lake bed to attempt to break the land speed record.
Could he have grown tired of the limelight and wanted to start a new life? Could he have fled some personal or financial problems?
"We have looked at that," Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford told The Associated Press on Thursday.
"We have assets that are tracking financial records, credit card transactions, cell phone use," he said, noting they have not received any calls claiming sightings of Fossett.
"With his notoriety, we believe he couldn't walk away from this type of event," he said. "People would recognize him."
Investigators also dismiss the notion that Fossett met foul play or was kidnapped to be held for ransom.
"If we find a wreck area, we will need to treat that like a crime scene before we rule out foul play," Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said. "But there's no reason to think about that now."
A longtime prosecutor in neighboring Washoe County said the normal course of an investigation would include at least a brief look into even the most unlikely scenarios.
"I have no idea about Mr. Fossett, but I know that it has happened in the past where we have had guys just disappear and stage things," Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick said.
"When you can't find individuals for an extended period of time, you would have to look at everything."
But Gammick thinks it's much more likely that Fossett's plane simply went down in a rugged canyon, or perhaps a lake, where searchers haven't found him and perhaps never will.
High winds kept most search planes grounded Thursday. Ground crews returned to a spot in the Pinenut Mountains in western Nevada where two witnesses reported seeing a plane like Fossett's fly into a canyon, but not out, on Labor Day. About 80 percent of the area has been searched, Civil Air Patrol Maj. Ed Locke said.
"There are no new major leads today," Sanford said late Thursday afternoon.
To the south, just across the California line, crews finished searching an area northeast of Yosemite National Park. California law officers met Thursday with a woman who reported a day earlier that she had camped there over Labor Day and had heard a noise that sounded like an airplane, followed by what sounded like an explosion. A plane found nothing during a flyover Wednesday.
"They did a pretty good extensive search ... and they didn't come up with anything," Alpine County Sheriff John Crawford said.
Another possibility is that Fossett strayed much farther afield than the search area, which already covers 17,000 square miles. The plane he was flying could have taken him deep into neighboring California, Oregon or Arizona, all states with vast areas of wilderness.
"We may never find it, that's an absolute fact," Locke said. "But we've got to continue as long as we've got leads."
Box canyons can be deadly. Many experienced pilots have wandered up box canyons from the bottom and found themselves unexpectedly without options.
You suspect a density altitude issue ? I have experienced such in the Grand Canyon in summer in a old Cessna 172 yet that north around Reno seemed cooler temps that day he went missing........dunno. Accelerated stall trying to get out of a narrow canyon is possible.
I will suggest a hard crash resulting in his death vs a emergency landing he could limp away from. He would have signaled by now in some form or fashion due his basic survival skills collected over his decades of adventuring experience.
Just my opinion of course......
If you are good (and have enough time, not terribly much is required in a Citabria) you can execute a hammerhead stall and do a 180 and get back out the way you came.
If you are good (and have enough time, not terribly much is required in a Citabria) you can execute a hammerhead stall and do a 180 and get back out the way you came.
Space aliens, in an effort to slow down the human expansion into their territory, abducted both him and his plane. They are now millions of light years away, but safe................
Have they checked area 51?
I think its interesting to hear people bitch about not being able to find Bin Laden, when this guy is supposed to be in an area where we should be able to find him........not that easy no matter where you are .....
Yeah, like that baseball player in the Cirrus that hit that building in NYC. That is exactly what he did and his instructor did.
One thing has stuck with me throughout this search. It was a comment made by a CAP officer regarding the amount of assets being employed to find Fossett. She said that no extra efforts were being made just because of his celebrity. Considering the fact that they've found a dozen other wrecks, with one dating back to the 1940's, I'd say that her statement isn't entirely accurate.......
A favorite end destination of hang glider pilots I know who fly in the area is a place called "Janie's Ranch". It's a brothel/bar with a runway. I don't know if it's still open or not, but if they haven't checked already, I'd look for him at Janie's......
Well, I think we can rule out the Greys snagging him and returning to the mother ship, a comet, or planet X.
This sounds like a disabling heart attack or stroke followed by a crash or mechanical failure somewhere he could not get down safely. Never hurts to have company in the cockpit when you go up.
There was a lot of attention to the hazards of box canyons after the Cory Lidle accident in New York. It’s not so much a density altitude issue as running out of room as the canyon walls close in and the ground rises.
Yep....... Stay Safe !
Any way, I don't care. I'm sick of hearing about him and MY TAX MONEY being spent to search for this egomaniac bonehead zillionaire. And dead or alive his company or estate better start ponying up with refund money for the search.
If I use the local ambulance I get a bill, he better too. Screw him.
This is not costing the taxpayers anything. I know one of the members of the Lyon County Search and Rescue team. The military is going to train anyway, this is what they do. The Civil Air Patrol has it’s own funds and Baron Hilton is paying for all the gas and extras like GPS systems that mark all the grids that had been previously searched. I live where he took off. It is a vast terrain. The reason they are finding other crash sites is because the technology has improved over the years AND there were no search and rescue teams in those days. No one lived out here! There were no crash site records and the NTSB only gets involved when there is a commercial flight that goes down or a suspected crime and I am not quite certain about that. So don’t get up on your high horse without knowing the facts. You appear very pompous.
I heard on another thread that he’s started his own Galt’s Gulch...
This guy’s self-serving antics have cost taxpayers millions over the years. While we pray for his safe return, we hope that he will be paying the costs for a change. And, many lives have been put at risk in supporting this effort and we should all be thankful that he has not cost two lives, yet.
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