Posted on 09/25/2007 8:06:47 PM PDT by RDTF
CARSON CITY, Nev. - Relying on new leads from Air Force experts, crews looking for famed aviator Steve Fossett plan to comb a rugged area near Death Valley by air and foot, authorities said Tuesday. Gary Derks, the state Department of Public Safety official in charge of the search, said the Air Force analyzed images picked up by radar and satellite and "picked up what could be Mr. Fossett, his track." "It gives us an idea, if it's him, what direction he was going," Derks said of the wealthy adventurer, missing for more than three weeks.
Derks said the area stretches about 100 miles to the southeast from where Fossett took off Sept. 3, an airstrip on a million-acre ranch owned by hotel mogul Barron Hilton. Maps show the area would include Nevada's remote Silver Peak Range, close to Death Valley National Park in California.
"There's nothing definite, nothing concrete," Derks said. "These are just some hits that we want to track."
Search planes will fly over the area Saturday and Sunday, Derks said.
The area is "very rough terrain," Derks said. "If he's there, he's going to be hard to see. That's why we're sending in the ground search-and-rescue crews, too."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at wjla.com ...
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1. Piss him off if he makes it back alive and did not hear about it, or
2. Motivate him to get found sooner if he has a radio and hears about it.
Listen, we can look all we want, but he is a self made man and if he is still alive, a little motivation like making him poor just may help!
Unless you’re flying IFR, there is no requirement to file a flight plan. It is recommended, but not required.
Most pilots in small planes, flying in clear weather, taking off and intending to land at the same airport won’t file flight plans.
My prayers go out for him, and for his family and friends who await word on his situation.
He does so much that really requires him to be at the tip top of his game I wonder if he didn’t head off on what would be for him a very routine cross country flight and in so doing let something really simple trip him up. Spending a couple of hours in his single engine aircraft would be very mild compared to many of his experiences.
Are the talking last Saturday and Sunday, I hope! I would hate to think they are putting off this aspect of the search until next weekend.
Their frequency is monitored by satellite. The satellite is programmed to ignore the first signal it receives and not report it until its next pass over the area. This helps rule out false alarms since people trigger them by mistake and turn them off quickly so that it’s no longer transmitting on the next pass.
I have very little doubt that he is dead. There’s no way he carried enough water to live this long, and it’s hugely unlikely that he found any. I’d love to be proven wrong, to see Fossett walk into a Reno casino and ask for a beer, a Keno ticket and about two gallons of Gatorade, but I don’t see it as likely.
Radio Detection and Ranging
"CARSON CITY, Nev. - Relying on new leads from Air Force experts,"
We’ve come a long way!
In WWII a 24 crashed in remote Alaksa. Two of the ferry crew were able to bail out. One of the crew members survived 86 days untill noted by another ferry flight and was rescued.
He stated out with a parachute and a Boy Scout knife......and was lucky to find trapper cabins.
“Two crew members bailed out before the crash. One of them, co-pilot 2nd Lt. Leon Crane of Philadelphia, survived for 86 days in the wilderness after he stumbled upon trappers’ cabins where he found food and refuge from the elements. Crew chief Master Sgt. Richard Pompeo, the second man who made it out of the bomber, was never found.”
See http://www.usarak.army.mil/alaskapost/Sep14Story20.asp
an Army site.
At first I just thought this was a guy with more money than skill...a thrill seeker who fate caught up with, ala John Denver years ago.
But the fact they haven’t found Fossett, the plane or wreckage....something just doesn’t seem quite ‘right’ about this whole affair.
I agree that it’s odd that NV didn’t report this right away.
ping
That’s an awful lot of area to have to search. I remember being involved in search for a small plane that disappeared in a thunderstorm near Greenville, AL, or maybe was Evergeen, way back in the early 60’s. They gave up after a week and it wasn’t found until a couple of years ago when some hunters wandered across the wreckage and the remains of those aboard. The woods up there are such that if the plane goes in anything like vertical the trees just swallow it up and it’s very difficult to see it from the air.
My prayers go out for him, but I fear with the passing of time he’s out of luck.
Just kidding... I know it was probably his f'n key that was all worn out and doesn't work anymore.
HF, CFII, SEL, MEL
I am not all prejudiced against VFR-squawking sources of secondary returns. Although I thought if you were squawking anything, have and using a transponder, that you would not be a secondary return.
Thanks for doing the dirty work of editing that I failed to do!
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