LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The wife of missing adventurer Steve Fossett on Monday praised the work of rescuers searching for her husband, as the hunt for the millionaire aviator entered its second week.
In a statement read by police to reporters at Minden Air Base, Nevada, Peggy Fossett said she was confident that the daunting search for her husband would eventually produce results.
"The search for Steve Fossett is intense, thorough and highly professional," Peggy Fossett said. "Our hopes are high and I am confident of a successful resolution to this search."
She praised the "incredible" collaboration between military, law enforcement and civilian authorities while thanking the "hundreds of friends and volunteers who are looking for and the millions around the world who are praying for Steve's safe return."
Further false leads and frustration dogged the hunt over the weekend, with dozens of aircraft scouring a vast expanse of mountainous Nevada wilderness seeking clues to Fossett's fate.
Fossett has not been heard from since last 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 search more than 10,000 square miles (25,900 kilometers) of terrain with no firm idea of where the airman might be.
Officials said Monday they were continuing to focus attention on a 50-mile (80-kilometer) radius from the airstrip where Fossett took off, noting that many aviation accidents occur shortly after take-off or before landing.
"The 50-mile radius from the Flying M Ranch is still the focus," Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford told reporters.
"We're going to stick with this until we find him. As long as there's hope, as long as there are assets, we will continue. We will not rest until we bring this to what we feel is a successful conclusion."
Sanford said rescuers were encouraged rather than dismayed by the discovery of seven uncharted plane wrecks during the search, saying it showed the effectiveness of technology being used in the hunt.
"We look at that as a positive sign," Sanford said. "These aircraft went down well before we had the technology we are using now."
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.
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 globe in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. In 2002, he was the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.
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