# Fosset Found?



## comiso90 (Oct 1, 2008)

Missing adventurer's items found - CNN.com


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## Erich (Oct 1, 2008)

God's speed buddy, now for the rest of the remains and A/C as well. Out of Mammoth and yes this would be the time as the snows and Glaicers on the east side of the Sierra are at their lowest points till November snows

thanks Comiso


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## Becca (Oct 1, 2008)

I was just reading this CNN breaking news. Hopefully this will bring some closure.


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## comiso90 (Oct 1, 2008)

Les'Bride said:


> Hopefully this will bring some closure.



Yes, I hope it answers a lot of questions. The last I heard they were searching the desert. I guess he went further then they thought.

For the first month I was hoping for a resolution like this:

The Lost Lockheed T-33 - David Steeves 1957

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## evangilder (Oct 1, 2008)

A little further south than I had intially thought, but hopefully this will lead to his whereabouts.


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## lesofprimus (Oct 1, 2008)

Theyll be lucky if they find any remains... All those critters and beasts had a piece or two Im sure.... Hopefully they find something out that will close this chapter for his family...


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## Erich (Oct 1, 2008)

well there should be remains of his small light craft even if it has been scattered, there are quite a few basalt cragged ridges around mammoth my ol stomping grounds as a kid.......one of the probs is going to be traversing everything to find him whatever is left as it is ridge after ridge, a person could lose themselves out there very easily


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## timshatz (Oct 1, 2008)

What's the distance from where he was found and where he took off? What's the speed and range of the bird he was flying? Where was he last seen?

I don't know the area so I'm just tossing it out there but isn't that a distance away from where he was last seen? Does the math work?


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## Erich (Oct 1, 2008)

just found out the hiker who owns a ski shop most likely in Mammoth was hiking along the trail to Minaret Lake. punch up the Minarets in the Eastern Sierra, Californai and you will understand the ruggedness of the area. if he hit one of those crags then he and the craft have gotten themselves stuck literally in one of the very steep chutes separating each one of those 13 plus crags along the ridge line, of course he could of hit Banner or Garnet Peaks or a sub peak in the area...of course it is still too early to say. Minaret lake is across and around the corner of a ridge from Deadhorse lake sitting near 10,000 feet in elevation, spectacular surroundings, just to the NW is Cecile and Iceberg lakes and to the west is the Minaret chain of ridges


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## Erich (Oct 1, 2008)

look like a beautiful place to climb not for crashing an A/C

Cecil and Iceberg lakes with the Min's


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## comiso90 (Oct 1, 2008)

Good info Erich...

I'd like to know if he survived the initial impact. Would survival gear have helped him?

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## Erich (Oct 1, 2008)

well he was lost the first week in September of 07, not sure when the first fall snows came on the Sierras but at over 10,000ft he would be in a world of hurt even in a flat meadow at that altitude with frost imminent at anytime, plus the winds.


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## FLYBOYJ (Oct 1, 2008)

I've done mountain flying with the CAP in that area in the early 90s - the worse possible place to crash a plane or to look for one.


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## seesul (Oct 1, 2008)

look at this Joe 

_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z985xdXW-3w_


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## Erich (Oct 1, 2008)

think you are right Joe and the Palisades as well as south on the Whitney Massif, though higher and more open the barreness starts to look all the same, there is so much area to cover it is probably fruitless though anyone can bet the private search will be on as the area is now limited in scope


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## CharlesBronson (Oct 1, 2008)

Sad end for a great aviator.


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## evangilder (Oct 1, 2008)

I have hiked that area as well. Very rugged terrain and the snows come pretty early up there. With the bears, wolves and coyotes up there, I doubt they will find any remains, but the aircraft will likely be scattered, especially if he went down in the minarets. I don't think there is anywhere in the Minarets you could even put a copter down.


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## comiso90 (Oct 1, 2008)

not to be nit picky but there are no wolves in CA..
except at the bars!

Gray Wolf Range in the Conterminous United States


I'm not sure there are many coyotes at that altitude either as there is way more food down lower.

Mountain coyotes tend to stay under 7000 feet.

Ants, moisture and rot would do more erosion to a body then any mammal.


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## evangilder (Oct 1, 2008)

I was at 10,000 feet, near Saddlebag Lake and saw coyotes. I also almost hit one on Meridian Rd, heading into Mammoth. So they are definitely in the area.


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## seesul (Oct 2, 2008)

(CNN) -- Search teams looking for millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett may have found the wreckage of the plane he was flying when he disappeared more than a year ago.
Steve Fossett, seen here with his wife, Peggy, disappeared after a solo flight in 2007.

The Madera County, California, Sheriff's Department said the wreckage was spotted Wednesday during an aerial search of the area where a hiker had discovered identification with the missing aviator's name.

According to The Associated Press, Preston Morrow said he found three identification cards with Fossett's name and about $1000 in cash Monday tangled in a bush just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes.

Erica Stuart, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, said a ground crew will be dispatched to make a definite determination on the wreckage. The sheriff is expected to reveal more information on Thursday.

"We're not certain that it belongs to Steve Fossett, but it certainly has his name on the ID," said Mammoth Lakes, California, Police Chief Randy Schienle. Video Watch police chief describe hiker's discovery »

Schienle said a sweatshirt was also found in the area.

Fossett was last seen on the morning of September 3, 2007, when he took off from the Flying-M Ranch outside Minden, Nevada, on a "pleasure flight" over the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in a single-engine plane. He was carrying one bottle of water and had no parachute.


Fossett had planned to fly over the Nevada desert for two to three hours before returning for lunch at the ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

When Fossett failed to return, a search began that ultimately included thousands of volunteers, hundreds of officials and dozens of aircraft that scoured an area more than twice the size of New Jersey.

The search was officially suspended on October 2, 2007. A Chicago, Illinois, probate court judge declared Fossett dead in February.
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Fossett made his money in the financial services industry, but he is renowned for his daredevil exploits, which include non-stop, round-the-world trips aboard a balloon, a fixed-wing plane and a boat.

Fossett was the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon, accomplishing the feat in 2002, and the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling, which he did in 2005. He also set world records in round-the-world sailing and cross-country skiing. 

Searchers find wreckage possibly belonging to Fossett - CNN.com


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## comiso90 (Oct 2, 2008)

Thats not an area i'd want to fly in a single engine aircraft.

Was his Decathlon a turbo prob? Do they make Decathlon turbo props?

I've flown over that area in a Navajo, Seneca and a 410. I was glad they were twins!


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## FLYBOYJ (Oct 2, 2008)

comiso90 said:


> Thats not an area i'd want to fly in a single engine aircraft.
> 
> Was his Decathlon a turbo prob? Do they make Decathlon turbo props?



No to both


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## Erich (Oct 2, 2008)

this may sound weird but what a wonderful place if you were to pick a place to go.........this would be it.

yes if he slammed against something there is not going to be much left, with high wind, altitude and snow/ice, hot baking sun against the rocks during summer....

on a slightly different bend yes Eric I know Saddlebag well, my Dad and his best friend from San Diego meet there yearly in September and they camp off the road, beach and take a small boat out on the huge lake for a couple days and go crazy trout fishing.

E ~


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## Flyboy2 (Oct 2, 2008)

Yeah this is all over the news were I live... Nice to know finally know what happened


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## comiso90 (Oct 3, 2008)

(CNN) — When adventurer Steve Fossett disappeared on a solo flight a year ago, he was four weeks away from piloting a winged submersible in a Pacific Ocean dive to the deepest spot on Earth — the Mariana Trench, the head of the company that made the craft said.

At Fossett’s request, Hawkes Ocean Technologies built the vessel Deep Flight Challenger so the millionaire could try to set a solo-dive record to the Mariana Trench, 37,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, company owner Graham Hawkes told KGO-TV in Richmond, California.

When Fossett went missing, the project was put on hold, Hawkes said Thursday. The craft is stored in a Richmond warehouse.

“We’d finished testing. All of the systems had been tested under pressure at Department of Defense facilities, and we were four weeks away from splashing it in,” Hawkes said in an interview. “It (dive) would have dramatically, dramatically opened the oceans for exploration. It would have been a game-changer.”


The CNN Wire: Latest updates on top stories - Blogs from CNN.com

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## RabidAlien (Oct 4, 2008)

Dang. They should go ahead with that dive!


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## comiso90 (Oct 5, 2008)

i volunteer!


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## FLYBOYJ (Oct 31, 2008)

Fossett ordeal may be over for family
By Alton K. Marsh

Newly discovered bone fragments found at the crash site of adventurer Steve Fossett on Oct. 29 are believed to be human, according to California’s Madera County Sheriff John P. Anderson. The fragments will now be tested for DNA that could link them to Fossett. Testing had been inconclusive, or negative, on fragments found earlier in October.

“Pending DNA results, I believe our coroner’s investigation is over and the Fossett family will finally have closure,” Anderson said. 

To make certain a thorough search was conducted before the winter season set in, three Madera County Sheriff’s deputies, along with five volunteers from the Mono County Sheriff’s search and rescue team, returned to the site one last time on Oct. 29. Before the day was over, the recovery team found a number of items that include: skeletal remains (bones), a pair of tennis shoes, credit cards, and Steve Fossett’s Illinois state driver’s license.

The bones found Oct. 29—a little over a half-mile east of the Steve Fossett crash site in the Ansel Adams Wildreness—are believed to be human.

There were no remains found when searches combed through the crash site on Oct. 2, although they did extract what initially appeared to be a single bone fragment that day. On the following day, search crews found three more thumbnail-sized specimens after the wreckage of the plane had been removed. An anthropologist analyzed the pieces discovered that day, along with the first four fragments found earlier in the month. He was able to rule out all but two.

Unable to determine whether or not those two bones were human, Anderson had them delivered to a state forensics lab to test for human DNA profiling. The results were inconclusive.


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