Hunt for adventurer Steve Fossett nears one-week mark
LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett neared the one-week mark on Sunday, with aircraft once again taking to the skies above a vast expanse of wilderness to hunt for the millionaire aviator, officials said.
Fossett has not been heard from since Monday, when he failed to return after taking off on a solo flight from a private airstrip 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Reno, Nevada.
The search has been complicated by the fact that the 63-year-old veteran of numerous record-breaking solo airplane and balloon flights failed to file a flight-plan for what was supposed to be a routine three-hour jaunt.
That has left rescuers having to scour more than 10,000 square miles (25,900 kilometers) of remote terrain with no clear idea of where the missing airman might be.
Aircraft took to the skies from Minden Air Base in northwestern Nevada around 7:00 am (1400 GMT), with around two dozen planes and helicopters expected to be in flight later Sunday, a Nevada State Police spokesman said.
On Saturday a total of 45 aircraft, including around a dozen volunteer pilots, were involved in the hunt for Fossett, rescue officials said.
"Anything reasonable that we can add is probably going to make a difference, but we won't know that until we find our target," Civil Air Patrol Major Cynthia Ryan told reporters.
Underscoring the vastness of the area being searched, officials said spotter planes have so far found wreckage from six previously unrecorded crash sites, while the area has been described as an "aircraft graveyard."
Fossett has survived numerous near-misses and harrowing crash landings over the years, including a 29,000-foot (9,000-meter) plummet into the Coral Sea off Australia because of a storm-shredded balloon.
Rescuers do not believe Fossett had packed food and water aboard his plane because he had only planned a three-hour flight.
Fossett's single-engine Bellanca aircraft was equipped with an electronic tracking device designed to be triggered in the event of a rough landing, but it has not been activated.
Fossett made the first solo nonstop, non-refueled circumnavigation of the world in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. In 2002, he was the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.
Fossett has also set dozens of world records in sailboats, gliders and hot-air balloons.
A tireless athlete, he has swum the English Channel, raced in the Ironman Triathlon and completed the grueling 1,165 mile (1,887-kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska.
Born in California, Fossett attended Stanford University before obtaining an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
He made a fortune dealing stocks in Chicago before becoming famous for his daredevil record attempts.
