NTSB official: Remains found at site of adventurer Steve Fossett’s plane crash

By Mary Manning (contact)

Published Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | 7:29 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | 4:32 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board chairman said today that human remains have been found at the site of adventurer Steve Fossett's crash site.

Earlier NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said from preliminary information from the scene of Fossett's aircraft site that the crash would be "nonsurvivable."

Rosenker said he arrived at the site today and was informed that the wreckage had been spotted at 9,700 feet late Wednesday.

Based on a review of photos by investigators, preliminary information indicates the "high impact crash which appears to be consistent with a non-survivable accident," Rosenker said.

Madera County (Calif.) Sheriff John Anderson said that the plane's wreckage had been found about a quarter mile from where a hiker discovered identification cards and $1,005 in cash.

From measurements taken by searchers at the crash site, the plane crashed, moving up the mountainside for 100 feet and then the engine continued another 300 feet, Anderson said.

The crash site is in a "clear area" near Minaret Lake Trail on an unidentified mountainside, the sheriff said.

A team of 50 persons were going arm in arm over a mile-wide area around the crash site looking for human remains, Anderson said. It's possible no remains may be found, because in a previous search a few years ago for a missing skier, nothing but the man's ski boots was ever found, Anderson said.

A helicopter pilot based at Yosemite National Forest found the wreckage late Wednesday and camped in the area then hiked in at daylight and found the remains of the Bellanca Super Decathlon airplane, Anderson said.

"It was a head-on crash into the side of a mountain, into a rock," Anderson said. "The plane disintegrated. We found the engine 300 feet from the fuselage."

Fossett took off on a pleasure flight from the south of Reno on Sept. 3, 2007.

"The crash looked so severe, I doubt anyone could have walked away from it," Anderson said. "It's our job to try to locate the remains and take care of those. The family deserves our best."

Anderson said that the family had been notified of the plane's wreckage site by the Lyon County, Nev., sheriff's office, since that is where the original missing person's report was filed.

The 63-year-old Fossett did not have a black box on board the plane. That would have recorded the flight data or any communications from Fossett, Anderson said.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board has joined local, state and other federal officials at the scene, Anderson said.

Fossett set world-shattering flying and sailing records,, including the first solo balloon flight around the Earth. The millionaire financial broker had also swum the English Channel and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Authorities spent $1.6 million searching for Fossett after his plane disappeared in 2007.

A hiker, 43-year-old Preston Morrow, manager of Kittredge Sports in Mammoth Lakes, found Fossett's pilot's license, a glider license and a membership card for the National Aeronautic Association while hiking on Monday. He also discovered $1,005 in cash partially buried in pine needles and smuged with mud.