LOOP News

10 OCT 07: FOSSETT STILL MISSING

13-aircraft team based at Flying M

ADVENTURER and record-setter Steve Fossett is still missing after his aircraft, a Citabria Super Decathlon, failed to return after a flight in the southern Nevada desert on Monday, 3 September.
Steve was flying solo after taking off from the Flying M ranch, which belongs to his friend and fellow aviation enthusiast, Barron Hilton.

It's understood Steve was on a local pleasure flight and not, as has been suggested, researching sites for a possible land speed record attempt. That attempt, known as 'Target 800mph' was due to have started at Bonneville Salt Flats last month.

In addition to the Civil Air Patrol over-flights of the area, aviation enthusiasts all over the world have been scouring satellite photos of the area where Steve's aeroplane is believed to have come down.

The latest move by the team based at the Flying M is photography from fixed-wing aircraft with helicopter and ground-based SAR follow-up. Technology being employed includes airborne hyper spectral imaging - which shows disturbed earth/impact sites plus man-made objects as well as different elements not visible to the human eye. Additionally, side scan sonar is still being used in the surrounding lakes.

The Flying M team, comprising eight helicopters and five fixed-wing aircraft, are flying each day to methodically work assigned sectors of the search grid, flying as low as possible. These private aircraft are acting in close coordination with the military helicopters as they comb the rugged and mountainous high desert, looking for signs of Steve's Super Decathlon light aircraft or of a crash site.
W: www.stevefossett.com

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LOOP News

10 OCT 07: FOSSETT STILL MISSING