Oct 2, 2008 4:11 pm US/Pacific
Search Teams Find Body Parts In Fossett Wreckage
MAMMOTH LAKES (AP) ―
-
-
Adventurer Steve Fossett poses next to his aircraft the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer after landing at the National Air and Space Musuem, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, in Chantilly, Va. on May 23, 2006. Fossett became the first person to fly an airplane solo
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Federal investigators said Thursday that they found body parts amid the wreckage of a Steve Fossett's airplane in the mountains of eastern California.
The National Transportation Safety Board said searchers found enough at the crash site of the adventures plane near Mammoth Lakes to provide coroners with DNA.
National Transportation Safety Board acting Chairman Mark Rosenker wouldn't say exactly what searchers found. But he said it was not surprising how little they uncovered, considering how long it had been since the crash.
Fossett was 63 when he vanished a little more than a year ago after taking off from an airstrip in Nevada's Lyon County just east of the Sierra.
The mangled debris of Fossett's single-engine Bellanca was spotted from the air late Wednesday near the town of Mammoth Lakes and was identified by its tail number. Investigators said the plane had slammed straight into a mountainside.
"It was a hard-impact crash, and he would've died instantly," said Jeff Page, emergency management coordinator for Lyon County, Nev., who assisted in the search.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators were sent to figure out what caused the plane to go down. Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away at an elevation of 9,700 feet, authorities said.
"It will take weeks, perhaps months, to get a better understanding of what happened," said Mark Rosenker, the NTSB's acting chairman.
The intrepid balloonist, pilot and all-around thrill-seeker was scouting locations for an attempt to break the land speed record in a rocket-propelled car.
Fossett's disappearance spurred a huge search that covered 20,000 square miles, cost millions of dollars and included the use of infrared technology. Eventually, a judge declared Fossett legally dead in February. For a while, many of his friends held out hope he survived, given his many close scrapes with death over the years.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Click to enlarge
How Do Rain Gauges Really Work? 40 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Comments