craig(at)craigandjean.com
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 Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject: Off topic: Steve Fossett Items Found Near Mammoth Lakes, CA |
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The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/10/01/BAPT139M9N.DT
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Wednesday, October 1, 2008 (SF Chronicle) Fossett items found near Mammoth
Lakes Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
(10-01) 14:40 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Search and rescue teams are climbing high
into a mountainous area of Madera County today to hunt for the remains of
millionaire aviator Steve Fossett, whose identification papers were found
over the weekend near Mammoth Lakes.
A local hiker said he found three ID cards issued to Fossett by the Federal
Aviation Administration and the National Aeronautic Association.
They are the first solid sign of the 63-year-old adventurer since he
disappeared on Sept. 3, 2007 after taking off for a pleasure flight from a
private airport south of Reno, Nev.
A host of federal, state and local agencies launched one of the most
intensive hunts in national history after Fossett vanished, but except for a
few forays into California near Bridgeport and Mono Lake, the effort was
concentrated in Nevada.
A handful of searchers made a flyover of the Mammoth Lakes region over the
past year, based on an unconfirmed reported sighting of his plane in the
area, but found nothing. Today's hunt is the first extensive search there.
"We're trying to get Mono County Search and Rescue crews up there this
afternoon," said Stuart Brown, spokesman for Mammoth Lakes, a popular ski
town east of Yosemite National Park. "It's pretty steep, treacherous and
rugged up there, and the winds are a real issue. We'll see what we can do."
The crews are searching the wooded slopes above Ridge Lake, which is near
the Minarets, a jagged string of peaks about five miles east of Mammoth
Lakes. Elevation in the area reaches 12,000 feet. They will have to work
fast, Brown noted, because a three-day snow storm is expected to sweep in
Thursday and drop up to a foot of snow.
Tom Cage, owner of Kittredge Sports in Mammoth Lakes, said his store
manager, Preston Morrow, found the items while he was day-hiking with his
dog late Monday afternoon in the Inyo National Forest.
Morrow found a pilots license and a gliders license, both issued by the
FAA, plus the membership card for the NAA, a nonprofit group that promotes
aviation and gave Fossett an award in 2002 for setting a fistful of flying
records.
The hiker also found 10 $100 bills, a $5 bill and a weathered Nautica
brand sweatshirt, Cage said as Morrow shouted assent from the other side of
the store, where he was inundated by local television crews. The finds were
made at an elevation of 10,100 feet, two miles east of the Minarets and
"about six miles into some very tough terrain," Cage said.
"Preston didn't realize what he found until the next day," said Cage. "He
just thought he was taking some trash out of the wilderness, so he took it
home, watched Monday night football, and didn't look at it again until the
next day."
Once he read Fossett's name on the papers, Cage said, he, Morrow and
Morrow's wife went back into the wilderness to search for more items and to
get GPS coordinates for the area. They then went to the Mammoth Lakes Police
Department on Tuesday with the items and the coordinates.
There has been no confirmation that the money or sweatshirt belonged to
Fossett. But the discovery near the ID cards made them items of great
interest, a spokesman for the Mono County Sheriff's Office reported.
The debris was found just over the county line separating Mono and Madera
counties, so Madera's sheriff and emergency officials will be taking the
lead on the search. Mono County search teams are closer to the area today,
so they are heading up the slopes first.
Fossett vanished after lifting off for a morning solo jaunt in an
acrobatics-style Bellanca Super Decathlon airplane from the swanky private
airport of his friend, hotel mogul Barron Hilton. The initial search teams
tried to follow tips from sightings on the ground and partial radar
trackings, and then scoped the hunt out to a huge area taking in most of the
south-middle portion of rugged, desert Nevada. Three private teams took a
cut at the hunt this summer, also with no success.
The aviator was world-renowned for setting 115 flying and sailing
records, including being the first to circle the earth alone without
fueling. The wealthy financial broker had also swum the English Channel and
climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, leading his friends to say if anyone could
survive an air crash, he could.
Speculation that he disappeared on purpose has been quickly dismissed by
search authorities and his family. A judge in Chicago, where Fossett
maintained a home in addition to a part-time residence in Carmel, declared
him dead on Feb. 15.
E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan(at)sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2008 SF Chronicle
-- Craig
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