Well, it looks as though folks are still hopeful:



New Fossett Search Efforts Planned For Summer Private Teams Will
Concentrate On Two Areas Near Planned
Destination

Two private ventures to
find adventurer Steve Fossett, missing since last September,
plan to renew the search in rugged mountains now clear of snow.

As reported by ANN, after
months of searching, a judge in Illinois officially declared
Fossett, 63, legally dead on February 15. Despite this, many hope
to at least find the wreckage of the small borrowed plane he was
using to survey possible locations to conduct a land speed record
attempt he was planning.

The Associated Press said the renewed searches will not match
the massive search last year covering nearly 20,000 square miles
and involving the efforts of many private and government groups
plus ground search crews, high-tech equipment and satellite
imagery.

The new effort includes two teams hoping to search primarily on
the ground in two distinct smaller areas they feel are likely
places where Fossett may have gone down.

Many involved in the search effort last year are not helping
directly with the renewed searches, but are assisting by providing
maps and detailed information on the rugged terrain they aim to
cover.

"The more people we have, the more eyes and boots on the ground
we have, the better our chances are of locating Mr. Fossett," said
Gary Derks of the Nevada Department of Public Safety, who oversaw
the 2007 hunt. "I wish them a lot of luck."

A team led by Canadian geologist Simon Donato, 31, will set out
in late July to search a remote area on the east slope of the
Sierra range. With experience in adventure racing through
wilderness areas around the world, Donato will bring up to ten
other backcountry athletes, some with search and rescue experience,
with him.
"You never know what you're going to find out there," said
Donato.

"It's going to be getting into those hard-to-reach areas and
basically crossing them off the map," he said. "The best-case
scenario is that we find him. The worst-case scenario - we're
making it easier for people in the future to continue this."

Donato said his efforts were to honor Fossett who he said "was a
hero to so many people."

"He had a huge following. People loved him. They love adventure,
and he was pushing the boundaries. Somebody like that just deserves
to be found" he said.

In late August, Washington, D.C., investor, alpinist and
longtime Explorers Club member Robert Hyman, 49, plans to lead a
team of up to 15 climbers, mountain guides and others with
backcountry expertise to check an area just east of the area Donato
is concentrating in.

Hymans search will focus on cliffs, crevices, ledges, steep
canyons and other hard-to-reach spots around the Wassuk Range,
dominated by 11,239-foot-high Mount Grant.

When Fossett departed on September 3, 2008, he originally headed
toward Lucky Boy Pass in the Wassuks in the borrowed Bellanca 8KCAB
Decathlon

"We're going to have to do this on foot, the old-fashioned
way," Hyman said referring to the massive aerial search last year.
"He's obviously in an area that you just can't see from overhead,
even with satellite imagery and high-altitude mapping and infrared
and everything else."

"If we go out there and don't find anything, OK, well, we tried.
And if next week, we hear on the news that someone else found him,
that's great. That's what we're all about. That's what we want,"
said Hyman, an experienced climber who has climbed the highest
peaks in all but three U.S. states and veteran of numerous mountain
and jungle expeditions.

Issuing a statement through a spokesman, widow Peggy Fossett
said that an analysis of high-tech mapping photography done in late
2007 was completed with no results and she's not involved in the
upcoming activity and has "no further plans for additional
searching."

Fossett's disappearance remains an open case for the Lyon
Country Sheriff's Department with jurisdiction over the
sprawling Flying M Ranch which Fossett departed from owned by hotel
magnate and friend, Barron Hilton.

While no official search is planned, Lyon County Undersheriff
Joe Sanford said search-and-rescue crews will be sent out
immediately if the teams led by Donato and Hyman spot
something.

"I truly thought someone would find something come springtime
when they started traipsing around hunting and things like that,"
Sanford said.

The sheriff said his department is cooperating with the
summer-season searchers as much as possible.

"We're not going to tell people not to go, but what they do if
they find something is always our concern," he said. "Where are
they going and what do they do if they need help - those are the
things that we're concerned with."

The chances of finding evidence of Fossetts loss seems for many
to be a hopeless effort. The area around Hilton's ranch, 80
miles southeast or Reno, typifies Nevada landscape including barren
areas as well as rugged terrain and wide swaths of trees that could
easily hide a downed aircraft.

"Don't give up hope. We waited 60 years or more," said Jeanne
Pyle, brother of WWII airman Ernest Munn whose body was found last
year in the high Sierra after his trainer disappeared in 1942.

(Photo of Fossett's plane, N240R, courtesy of Doug
Robertson, Jr.)


On Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:33:49 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote in :



The Steve Fossett Airmans Search Project

Yah know, it seems a pitiful thing indeed, that the great fraternity
of his fellow airman have been unsuccessful in their search for their
intrepid fellow, Steve Fossett. Initially those in authority directed
the search and rescue operations immediately after his disappearance.
They ordered all airmen/aircraft to remain outside the search area
while they conducted their searches. Later, Google made satellite
images available, so that the web community could add their zillions
of Mark I Eyeballs to those flying the search missions. (Was there
ever a search made of satellite photographs of the area taken during
the appropriate time window to look for a smoke plume? Do such photos
even exist?)

With the recent judicial declaration of Mr. Fossett's legal demise,
perhaps the time has finally arrived for those who would like to
volunteer their time and resources to an Airmans Fellowship Search
effort for the late Mr. Fossett.

This effort could be massive if the spirit of airmen respect for
Steve's broadening of the boundaries of human achievement can be
tapped. A well throughout plan to coordinate and direct such an
effort is essential, but more important are the skills and
intelligence of the person to head it, and those under him/her. But
I'd wager that there are plenty airmen among the readership of this
newsgroup alone who possess the skills and resources to organize and
execute the effort.

Because we are free to draft the regulations, the unique qualities of
the group could be enlisted for more diverse and specific operations
than have been conducted to date. Searchers could get down lower if
there were enough of them. Bush planes could be called in if ground
search was appropriate.

It has been suggested that the wreckage may lie at the bottom of a
lake. Perhaps the web diving-community could be enlisted to organize
a similar effort for searching the local lakes. Given Steve's
apparent audacious já de viver, who knows, he could have been skipping
his wheels on the glassy lake surface, and hit a swell. :-)

For this effort to succeed it will require two things:

1. A viable plan of action implemented by the right people

2. A corps of willing volunteers who would find it an honor to
participate



Opinions?


Suggestions?


Sign up:

Name:
Location:
Skills:
Equipment:
Availability: