MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - Wreckage found in the rugged eastern mountains of California is that of Steve Fossett's airplane, the Madera County sheriff said Thursday, adding that missing adventurer's craft appeared to have crashed head-on into the mountainside.
Crews conducting an aerial search late Wednesday spotted what turned out to be the wreckage in the Inyo National Forest near the town of Mammoth Lakes, Sheriff John Anderson said. They confirmed around 11 p.m. that the tail number matched Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane, he said.
Anderson said no human remains were found in the wreckage. Teams led by the sheriff's department would continue the search for remains Thursday, while the National Transportation Safety Board was en route to probe the cause of the crash, he said. Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away, Anderson said.
Searchers began combing the rugged terrain on Wednesday after a hiker found identification documents belonging to Fossett earlier in the week. The wreckage was found about a quarter-mile from where hiker Preston Morrow made his discovery Monday. The IDs provided the first possible clue about Fossett's whereabouts since he disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.
Aviators had previously flown over Mammoth Lakes, about 90 miles south of the ranch, in the search for Fossett, but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane. The most intense searching was concentrated north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.
A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles. |