Safety

Items appearing to belong to Steve Fossett have been found by hikers in California near Mammoth Lakes, about 65mi south of where the presumed dead adventurer departed on a local flight on 3 September 2007.

Among the items found were a “weathered” sweat shirt, cash and a pilot’s license with Fossett’s name on it, according to a report on CNN.

US Federal Aviation Administration pilot’s licenses do not include a photo. Given the aircraft’s 147mph cruise speed, the location would have been within the distance Fossett would have been expected to cover given that his flight was to be 2 to 2.5h in duration. Searchers initially believed Fossett had gone down within a 50mi radius of the ranch.

A massive search was launched after Fossett failed to return to the Hilton Ranch in western Nevada that morning. He had told friends at the ranch that he was flying to the Sierra Nevada mountain range on a pleasure flight in the single-engine aerobatic high-wing aircraft.

Teams, including the Civil Air Patrol and Army and Air National Guard, scoured the mountainous Nevada and surrounding landscape for several months, finding no trace of Fossett.

©Google

No homing signal from the aircraft’s emergency locator transmitter was received.Crews in October 2007 began using high resolution imaging and software searches through Google Earth data in an attempt to locate a crash site.

Hilton’s ranch covers 2,200 acres across western Nevada and eastern California. Fossett, who had been preparing to set a jet-powered land speed record in the area, was declared legally dead in February.

AirSpace discussions 

• Did Steve Fossett fake his own death?
• Steve Fossett lost in American airspace
• Hikers find Fossett belongings