Radar data revives hunt for Fossett

Teams on the ground and in aircraft kept hunting for millionaire aviator Steve Fossett on Sunday after a new analysis of radar data provided fresh optimism.

Radar and satellite images from Sept. 3, the day Fossett, 63, disappeared in a small plane, led Air Force technicians to believe they had spotted clues to his route. The formal aerial search by the Civil Air Patrol and the Nevada National Guard had ended Sept. 19. Nothing was found by Sunday afternoon, however.

Air Force experts pick up what could be Fossett's track

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 September 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.

Rescuers scale back search for Fossett

Rescuers called off their active air search for Steve Fossett on Wednesday, but insisted they had not given up hope and would keep crews on standby to fly to sites where the U.S. adventurer's airplane may have crashed.

Chuck Allen of the Nevada Department of Public Safety told Reuters that authorities continue to consider the hunt for Fossett a "search and rescue" mission, and that they are hopeful he is alive, but that the hunt would be scaled back.

In the most extensive search ever mounted in the western U.S. state of Nevada, air crews have found no sign of Fossett, the first person to pilot a balloon solo around the world in 2002.

Hunt for Steve Fossett nears second week

Like Amelia Earhart's disappearance over the Pacific Ocean 70 years ago, the riddle of Steve Fossett's whereabouts is threatening to become one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

Nearly two weeks after Fossett's light plane vanished above a vast expanse of rugged Nevada wilderness, an army of rescuers and volunteers are still no closer to locating the millionaire aviator.

And as the frustrating search acres continues to yield no clues, rescue officials say there is a chance that Fossett may never be found.

"That is always a possibility," Lyon County undersheriff Joe Sanford admitted grimly to reporters at Minden Air Base this week.

Fossett has not been heard from since September 3, when he took off on a solo flight from a private airstrip south of Reno, and failed to return as scheduled three hours later.

Since then, a mini air-force of helicopters and planes have taken to the skies in an effort to locate the 63-year-old, a veteran of several world record breaking balloon and plane flights around the globe.

Geeks Spot Fossett?

Aviation adventurer Steve Fossett went missing while flying over Nevada a week ago Monday. The cops can't find him. The Air Force can't find him. (They did spot 6 other previously unknown wrecks, though.)

But maybe, just maybe, a geek sitting at his computer succeeded where the government failed.





Using an Amazon.com service called Mechanical Turk, web users have been scouring massive amounts of satellite imagery in an effort to assist rescue workers. And one of them may have spotted Fossett's plane, according to AVweb

Intensive Search Underway

A search was under way in the mountainous terrain of western Nevada on Tuesday for James Stephen “Steve” Fossett, the aviator millionaire, who disappeared Monday after taking off from a ranch for a brief recreational flight in a single-engine plane.

Nine aircraft have been searching several hundred square miles for signs of Mr. Fossett or the blue-and-white single-engine Citabria Super Decathlon he was last seen flying south in, Major Ryan said. Mr. Fossett took off heading south from the Flying M Ranch, which is about 90 miles southeast of Reno.

Six of the search planes were the Civil Air Patrol’s Cessna 182 planes, each with three-person crews, and in addition helicopters from the Nevada National Guard, California Highway Patrol and Naval Air Station Fallon in Fallon, Nev.

“We’re committing federal resources to this mission,” Major Ryan said. “We’d do this for anyone.”

Major Ryan said that the weather was clear and wind was light on Monday when Mr. Fossett took off, and the plane he was in was used the day before by other Hilton Ranch guests. She said technicians at the ranch said it was in “excellent technical condition.”

Major Ryan also noted that Mr. Fossett did not take along a satellite phone or other radio equipment “he would normally take because he only intended to be gone a short while.”