New Leads in Search for Fossett

WJLA 7 DC ^ | Sept 25, 2007 | BRENDAN RILEY

[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-

[Badeye]

Insurance scam, perhaps?

Who knows.

[holden]

You're obviously on top of it in most every way ('cepn 'course that f-key, which appears to be fixed now, too)!

Best regards,
HF

[hattend]

The original report when he went down said he was wearing an ELT on his watch (Breitling has such a watch).

The fact that it hasn’t been activated tells me he didn’t survive the crash/forced landing. :-(

[BurbankKarl]

I heard the theory was he wanted to go out like Amelia Earhart

[reagan_fanatic]

That made me think he had a horrible crash and the responder was destroyed and he was killed then.

That's the most likely scenario, IMO. I pray for the best for Mr. Fossett, but I don't hold out much hope that he's still with us.

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

It was in two Tahoe/Reno area papers yesterday, yet not local insight, just the same AP feed in both.

Tahoe Daily Tribune / New info prompts search near Death Valley for adventurer Fossett

Reno-Gazette Journal / Fossett searchers ready big weekend push

[jwparkerjr]

re: I heard the theory was he wanted to go out like Amelia Earhart

I imagine it’s pretty tough to find Japanese soldiers these days to capture you, hold you prisoner, kill you and bury you in an unmarked grave on some desolate island somewhere halfway around the world.

[shield]

I wasn’t aware of that watch. Yes, I believe you MUST be RIGHT. Wonder when they’ll find the crash site with his remains?

[The Bass Player]

That’s right. I’d forgotten about that dif between VFR and IFR. I’m a civvy as far as aviation is concerned, lol. When I was 17, I took and passed a year long Aviation Education course in High School, one of the few classes that actually held my overall interest. At the end of the year, we all went up one at a time in a small plane with a pilot, taking off from a small, local “windsock” airfield, the scariest part was when the Pilot let me land on my own. I hope I never have to anything like that again, because, looking back now at the age of 43, I still shiver, lol.

[Lost Dutchman]

I imagine it’s pretty tough to find Japanese soldiers these days to capture you, hold you prisoner, kill you and bury you in an unmarked grave on some desolate island somewhere halfway around the world.

Freepmail me and I will see what I can arrange. :^P

[jwparkerjr]

I know what you’re up to. Your gonna try and pass off a couple of illegal Mexican immigrants on me to do the job. I want real Japanese, no cheap imitations for me, thank you.

[Lost Dutchman]

ROFLMAO