Steve Fossett is missing

[Borodog]

Developing news is that adventurer Steve Fossett is missing after having taken off in a small plane near the California/Nevada border. Details are scant at the moment.

From wiki:

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On September 4, 2007, the Record-Courier broke the news that Steve Fossett had been reported missing the previous evening. He was last seen taking off in his single-engine Citabria Super Decathlon plane from the Hilton Ranch just south of Smith Valley, Nevada .[3] Fossett took off from the private aircraft strip on the morning of September 3, 2007 and headed south. Several media outlets are also reporting that Steve Fossett might have made an unplanned landing, possibly crashing, in western Nevada during a test flight. Rescue teams are searching for any wreckage, and he is feared dead. The Associated Press is also reporting that he relayed a Mayday call, and that there was then an apparent explosion.
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Civil Air Patrol Nevada Wing Mission Public Information Officer Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan said three crews are in the air looking for Fossett’s blue and white aircraft and that more are on the way. The search area covers hundreds of square miles of rugged terrain. The Civil Air Patrol has called area airports looking for Fossett. There are currently more than eight aircraft searching for Fossett including aircraft from the Civil Air Patrol and California Highway Patrol.
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The Associated Press is now reporting that wreckage from a small blue and white aircraft has been spotted near Lovelock, Nevada. Lovelock is 80 miles North/Northeast of Reno, Nevada. No word yet on survivors or if this is the plane that Steve Fossett was last seen in.

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[Five-Star]

This story is not going to have a happy ending [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Borodog]

Looks like part of the problem is that Fossett filed no flight plan (not unusual for short flights, which this was supposed to be), so searchers have little idea where to look, other than that witness saw him fly off to the south.

[colonial]

fossett is one to be missed

[luckyjimm]

Exactly a year to the day that Steve Irwin died...

[Quicksilvre]

Tragically ironic that the guy who flew around the world twice alone in two different ways dies in a flight of a couple hundred miles. Sad [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[slickpoppa]

Damn, he was such a down to earth guy.






(too soon?)

[Hopey]

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Exactly a year to the day that Steve Irwin died...

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ZOMG! And they were both named STEVE!!!!

[prohornblower]

I don't know of this guy. His Wiki page show he was pretty old, into his sixties...maybe he died of old age?

[Quicksilvre]

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I don't know of this guy. His Wiki page show he was pretty old, into his sixties...maybe he died of old age?

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That could be--took off, got a heart attack in midair, and crashed.