Plane found, but search goes on for Fossett's remains

In a remote mountain region of eastern California, rescue workers today discovered the wreckage of a light aircraft belonging to Steve Fossett, the record-breaking aviator who vanished just over a year ago.

Remains of Fossett's single-engined Bellanca aeroplane were discovered near the summit of a ridge 10,000 feet above sea level in the Ansel Adams Wilderness section of the two-million acre Inyo National Fores. Local Sheriff Jon Anderson told a press conference that no human remains had yet been found, but that his department was continuing to search.

Most of the aircraft's fuselage, which was made from wood and fabric, disintegrated on impact with the thickly-forested hillside, he said, but its engine was found several hundred feet away from the original scene of the crash, he said.

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The exact location of the site was being kept under wraps yesterday. However it is reported to be roughly a hundred miles due south of the Nevada desert airfield from which Fossett set off on the morning of Monday September 3rd 2007, on what now appears to have been his final flight.

Searchers began combing the area after a local ski-shop owner, Preston Morrow, out walking his dog, stumbled upon several items of the 62-year-old adventurer's personal belongings in a patch of thick undergrowth, including two ID cards, a black sweatshirt, and $1,000 in cash.

"I came across the ID Card, another card, and the 100 dollar bills in the dirt and the pine needles and stuff and I went, 'wow'," Morrow told reporters. "There wasn't a picture of Fossett, but there was a name and ID. And stuff ... It didn't pop in my head right at that time who that was."

The aircraft's discovery may finally reveal what happened when Fossett, who had set more than 100 world records in five adventure sports, failed to return to the Flying M Ranch, a remote private airfield owned by the hotel magnate Barron Hilton, after what was described as a routine pleasure flight.

His disappearance sparked one of the biggest peace-time search-and-rescue operations in American history, covering 20,000 square miles close to the Flying M, and centring over a wide area of desert he was thought to have been scouting for a new land-speed record attempt.

Despite the massive operation, which lasted for over a month, no trace of the pioneering aviator was found. In February, a court in Chicago - where he made a fortune in finance before devoting himself to adventure sports - pronounced him legally dead.

Soon afterwards, conspiracy theories began circulating that Fossett might have faked his own death in order to escape personal or financial problems, or to secure an insurance payout for his wife of 39 years, Peggy.

Sceptics wondered how such an experienced pilot could have got into difficulty in a simple and reliable aircraft, on a clear day, in almost perfect flying conditions. They also found it difficult to believe that experienced investigators with state-of-the-art equipment could have failed to spot a crashed aircraft.

Although they are unlikely to be totally silenced until a body is found – and experts say it is likely to have been eaten by animals – friends of Fossett said yesterday that they hoped the discovery of his aircraft might dampen speculation about his disappearance. In an interview with Sky News, Sir Richard Branson, who collaborated with Fossett in a number of his most famous record attempts, said he believed this week's find was genuine.

"The positive thing is that today, a couple of stories that have appeared in the press, they'll be put to rest once and for all, and everybody who was close to Steve will have the chance now to pay the right tribute to what was a truly great and extraordinary person," Branson said

"They're definitely authentic belongings, it was his pilot license, his drivers license, it was also a membership card to the National Aeronautic Association which gave Stephen an award a couple of years ago. He also often carried 100-dollar bills with him so we are certain that these are genuine findings."

Yesterday, accident investigators were busy working out how Fossett's aircraft came to grief. Experts said the topography of the area could have contributed to an accident, if a pilot flew into one of the mountain gullies which suddenly narrowed before he had time to manoeuvre himself out of it.

The authorities were also trying to establish how the wreckage was initially missed by search and rescue teams. The Nevada Civil Air Patrol, which co-ordinated the operation, said teams had flown over the Mammoth area, but admitted it was away from their main area focus.

Locating wreckage in the eastern area of the Sierra Nevada can be especially difficult because of the dense woodland which covers much of the ground, and the fact that almost every hillside has hundreds of small gullies, which each need to be individually searched.

Meanwhile Fossett's wife Peggy,issued a statement on saying she was monitoring the situation. "I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband's remains, and am grateful to all of those involved in this effort."