News: Steve Fossett plane wreckage, DNA found

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - Inyo National Forest -- National Transportation Safety Bureau officials news conference - Authorities said they are doing an initial survey of the debris field, which is about 150 feet wide and nearly 400 feet long.
Wreckage containing some body parts have been located
The aircraft appeared to have crashed head-on into the side of a mountain, leaving a debris field, which is about 150 feet wide and nearly 400 feet long. "The plane moved up for 100 feet and disintegrated. The engine was found about 300 feet farther than the fuselage."

Photo of Steve Fossett plane wreckage
Credit: Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 handout photo released by the Mono County Sheriff's Search & Rescue.

Update: 1300 10-02-08 - National Transportation Safety Board acting chairman Mark Rosenker said Thursday that searchers had found "very little" at the scene but enough to provide coroners with DNA. Rosenker refused to say what exactly searchers had found, but said it was not surprising how little they uncovered considering how long it had been since the crash.
Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said "The aircraft appeared to have crashed head-on into the side of a mountain" Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away.
"It appeared to me, just looking at the pictures, that it was a head-on crash into the side of a mountain," Anderson said. "The plane moved up for 100 feet and disintegrated. The engine was found about 300 feet farther than the fuselage."

Update: 0800 10-02-08 - The aircraft wreckage of missing adventurer Steve Fossett's airplane appears to have crashed head on into the side of a mountain peak in the Los Padres National Park near Mammoth lakes / Minaret mines area.
Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away. Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said no human remains were found in the wreckage.
Teams led by the sheriff's department would continue the search for remains Thursday, while the National Transportation Safety Board was en route to probe the cause of the crash, he said.

Update: 0700 10-02-08 - After an aerial search late Wednesday spotted what appeared to be wreckage near the town of Mammoth Lakes, Search teams found the wreckage of missing adventurer Steve Fossett's airplane on this morning. Search teams have confirmed the tail number of the aircraft matched Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane.

At about 7 a.m., Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said an aerial search late Wednesday spotted what appeared to be wreckage in the Inyo National Forest near the town of Mammoth Lakes. He said ground crews were sent to verify the sighting, and they confirmed Thursday morning that it was Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane.

Some of world renowned adventurer Steve Fossett's personal belongings have been found in the California not far from the Nevada state line near Mammoth Lakes California.

Multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett vanished in 2007 after taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch.
Credit: Charlie Riedel / AP file

Inyo National Forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said Wednesday that a hiker found the items near the town of Mammoth Lakes.

A new search team is now being organized to comb the area. (Minaret Lake area in Madera County was mentioned early on- misinformation?)

Items were found by local ski shop owner Preston Morrow, The weather damaged items included two laminated cards found with Steve Fossett's name on them that were issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in Illinois, a sweat jacket and he also found 10 $100 bills, and a $5 bill, while hiking near his home in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.,

The man also found and brought the items back to his wife, a California Fire captain.
The hikers didn't find any signs of the light plane Fossett, 63, was flying when he disappeared last September.

Fossett Facts:

• Fossett was the first person to ride the jet stream around the world in a balloon. He climbed some of the world's tallest and toughest mountains, sailed and set a number of world records.
• In 2002, Fossett became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon.
• Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.
• He was declared legally dead in February.
• In August, an attorney for Fossett's widow pleaded for an end to speculation circulating on the Internet that the millionaire balloonist and air adventurer may have faked his own death, possibly because he was heavily in debt.
• Fossett, who made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets, took off from a private airstrip in Nevada last September on a solo flight in a light plane,
• He never returned, and searchers have found no trace of the plane.