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| Another search for Steve Fossett - |
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Arubalover
 Posted:
Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:23 pm |
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Another search for Steve Fossett
With Snow Melted, Search Resumes for Steve Fossett
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Steve Fossett
CARSON CITY, Nev. — The hunt for multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished in September after taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch, is resuming now that snow has melted in rugged mountains where he may have crashed.
The search won't match last year's, which covered about 20,000 square miles and involved a small air force of private and military planes, along with ground searchers and high-tech equipment. This time, two teams of volunteers will hike through a smaller area where the 63-year-old Fossett was last seen.
Previous searchers are providing maps and other detailed information on the harsh landscape the new teams plan to cover.
"The more people we have, the more eyes and boots on the ground we have, the better our chances are of locating Mr. Fossett," said Gary Derks of the Nevada Department of Public Safety, who oversaw the 2007 hunt. "I wish them a lot of luck."
One team will be headed by Simon Donato, a Canadian geologist whose avocation is adventure racing through wilderness areas around the world. In late July, he'll bring as many as 10 other backcountry athletes, several with search-and-rescue expertise, to hike through a rugged area on the east slope of the Sierra where Fossett could have gone down.
Aviator Steve Fossett "It's going to be getting into those hard-to-reach areas and basically crossing them off the map," Donato said. "The best-case scenario is that we find him. The worst-case scenario — we're making it easier for people in the future to continue this."
Fossett, declared legally dead Feb. 15 by a judge in Illinois, "was a hero to so many people," Donato said. "He had a huge following. People loved him. They love adventure, and he was pushing the boundaries. Somebody like that just deserves to be found."
In late August, Robert Hyman, a Washington, D.C., investor and alpinist, plans to bring in a team of up to 15 climbers, mountain guides and others with backcountry expertise to check an area just east of where Donato will search.
Hyman said he will focus in and around the Wassuk Range, dominated by 11,239-foot-high Mount Grant. When Fossett took off Sept. 3 in a borrowed plane on what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight, he headed toward Lucky Boy Pass in the Wassuks.
"He's obviously in an area that you just can't see from overhead, even with satellite imagery and high-altitude mapping and infrared and everything else," Hyman said.
Fossett's widow, Peggy, issued a statement that said that an analysis of high-tech mapping photography done in late 2007 was completed with no results. She's not involved in the upcoming activity and has "no further plans for additional searching," she said.Fossett, an expert pilot, took off Sept. 3 from the rugged Flying M Ranch of his friend, hotel magnate Barron Hilton, about 80 miles southeast of Reno.
The land around Hilton's ranch is so rugged that for some a continued search may seem hopeless. While there are plenty of bare areas that seem to typify Nevada, there also are broad swaths of pine, juniper and aspen trees that could easily hide a plane.
It has on occasion taken decades to find missing people and planes crashed in the area on the Nevada-California line.
"Don't give up hope. We waited 60 years or more," said Jeanne Pyle, who in mid-May was finally able to bury her brother, Ernest Munn, a World War II airman whose trainer plane disappeared in 1942 in the high Sierra about 100 miles from Hilton's ranch.
Backpackers told rangers last August they found an ice-entombed body on 13,710-foot Mount Mendel. In March, the Defense Department said forensic experts determined it was Munn, the long-missing brother of Pyle and her two sisters. He was the second of four airmen aboard the missing plane to be identified.
"We often wondered if they would ever find him," said Pyle, 87. "Who would have ever thought about ice preserving him. It's just been a miracle."
Well, Peggy now has his money, so apparently she doesn't give a damn if he gets a proper burial now.
I have to say however that IMO this man is no hero. He was a wild adventurist and an egomaniac, but no hero.
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Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Posts: 939
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| LISA
Posted:
Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:43 am |
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Search for adventurer Fossett to resume in Nevada
Monday, July 14, 2008
By BRENDAN RILEY, Associated Press Writer
BRIDGEPORT, Calif. —
A 10-member team of elite athletes and expert mountaineers hopes to do what search planes and satellite imagery couldn't _ find Steve Fossett's body.
The multimillionaire adventurer was declared legally dead in February, five months after he was last seen taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.
The search team led by geologist and adventure racer Simon Donato will focus on remote, wooded areas near where the 63-year-old Fossett was last seen _ areas that could have concealed wreckage from the crews of the many private and military planes that searched last year.
"Whether we luck out and find the wreckage or not, at least our tracks will be preserved so that in the future if someone wants to give this a try they'll know where we already were and they can go to the next mountain range over," Donato said in a weekend interview at a base camp between the Bodie Hills and Sweetwater Mountains.
The search area, with peaks ranging from 10,000 to more than 11,000 feet in elevation, is just east of the even higher Sierra Nevada and about 110 miles south of Reno, Nev. Because the area is close to Hilton's ranch, where Fossett was staying, Donato believes it's the best place to search.
Search team members, who are paying their own way, began arriving Friday to set up camp. The team will continue its efforts through this coming Friday and possibly Saturday, covering 15 to 20 miles a day depending on the terrain, Donato said.
Previous searchers provided maps and other detailed information on the harsh landscape. With planes and high-tech equipment, about 20,000 square miles was covered from the air. Some ground searches also were conducted, and thousands of amateur volunteers scoured high-resolution satellite photographs over the Internet of the rugged Nevada landscape where Fossett disappeared.
Donato considers Fossett, declared legally dead Feb. 15 by an Illinois judge, a hero to many people and dismisses speculation that his disappearance might have been staged.
"We're here on the premise that he did crash, unfortunately," he said. "I really respect him. He has done so much."
Donato, 31, won't be the only one looking for Fossett. In late August, Robert Hyman, a Washington, D.C., investor and alpinist, plans to bring in a team of up to 15 climbers, mountain guides and others with backcountry expertise to check an area just east of the section where Donato will search.
Hyman said he will focus in and around the Wassuk Range, dominated by 11,239-foot-high Mount Grant. When Fossett took off Sept. 3 from Hilton's ranch in a borrowed plane on what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight, he headed toward Lucky Boy Pass in the Wassuks.
The search area is so rugged that for some a continued search may seem hopeless. It has on occasion taken decades to find missing people and planes crashed in the area.
Fossett's widow, Peggy, issued a statement saying she's not involved in the latest search activity and has "no further plans for additional searching."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jul14/0,4670,FossettSearch,00.html
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Joined: 13 Apr 2006
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| Arubalover
Posted:
Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:38 pm |
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| Quote: | | Donato considers Fossett, declared legally dead Feb. 15 by an Illinois judge, a hero to many people and dismisses speculation that his disappearance might have been staged. |
I'm sorry, but what makes this egomaniac a hero?
Also, I will say again, Peggy got the money and obviously doesn't care that her husband gets a proper burial.  I heard that the state was billing her for their search efforts.
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Joined: 24 Nov 2007
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