Search for Fossett frustrates pilots

[kg4kww]

Do you think they will ever find him?

Sure looks glum.

MINDEN, Nevada (AP) -- Searchers looking for Steve Fossett have come across six uncharted plane crashes, but none of the wrecks sheds light on what may have happened to the multimillionaire adventurer.

Hopes that a wrecked plane spotted Friday on the side of a hill might be Fossett's were dashed quickly when ground crews learned the plane last was registered more than three decades ago.

As the search for Fossett stretched into its fifth full day Saturday, weary rescuers were no closer to understanding where he was flying or where his small plane might have gone down.

Full Story (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/08/fossett.ap/index.html)

[W5JO]

I don't know, they never found Hale Boggs.

[ka5piu]

Hello.

One thing that makes it hard is the fact that prior crashes are not cleared.
The Coast Guard sinks vessels that it finds, things like the Cuban rafts and the like.
But, CAP is expected to carry charts of all the wrecks and make judgements.

[W0BKR]

Due to the fact he has lots of money, they will probably continue looking longer then they would for you or I.

I suspect they will find him, but doubtful, alive.

[kd5kfl]

Years ago, a doctors plane disappeared between LA and Vegas. Flying a Beech Bonanza, AKA the Doctor Killer.

http://www.dailyaviator.com/images/2006-12/bonanza.jpg

Extraordinary effort went into the search. No joy.

A rancher was plowing a couple years later. Plowed up some piston crowns and crankshaft bits. Found the Bananas.

The cardiologist had a heart attack in flight. His passengers were white-knuckle fliers, sedated in the back seats. The very slick Bananas went nose down, achieved a very high rate of speed and planted itself in the Mojave desert. Very compact debris field, much of it buried.

In Re Hale Boggs. Hale Boggs was going to blow the whistle on irregularities. Hale Boggs died in a plane crash. There is an astonishing correlation between plane crashes and whistleblowers. Never get on an airplane with a person who has announced his intention to blow the whistle. Never announce your intention to blow the whistle, until you have already tooted.

[al2i]

Quote[/b] (kg4kww @ Sep. 08 2007,19:23)]Searchers looking for Steve Fossett have come across six uncharted plane crashes
So a half dozen were finally found?

[N3ATS]

Unfortunately this is the result that can be expected when you don't file a flight plan and don't have a locater beacon.

It would be a shame if he were found and it was learned that he died of exposure, rather than the crash, because of all this.

[w2amr]

Don't give up hope quite yet, I remember people saying they would never find Gilligan either.

[N3ATS]

Quote[/b] (w2amr @ Sep. 09 2007,11:28)]Don't give up hope quite yet, I remember people saying they would never find Gilligan either.
Yeah, the Harlem Globetrotters did! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[n2ize]

Interesting what happened to test pilot Scott Crossfield who was the first pilot to travel Mach 2 back in the 1950's. Yet in 2006 he died while piloting a small Cessna through an area of rough weather. It is kind of sad and ironic that a man like Crossfield who's life revolved around aviation, who not only flew untested aircraft but pushed them to their maximum limits should wind up loosing his life while piloting a well tested private aircraft.

[WA2ZDY]

Quote[/b] (W0BKR @ Sep. 09 2007,11:28)]Due to the fact he has lots of money, they will probably continue looking longer then they would for you or I.

I suspect they will find him, but doubtful, alive.
Hmmmm . . . kinda like JFK Jr? I agree.

[nq6v]

As a teen, I was, for a very short while, a cadet CAP member.I couldn"t juggle this and High School and ROTC and a part time job, and they were all rich kids in this paticular unit who did not like me much, so I dropped. But they showed a few films. On one, it was shown that known and unknown wrecks always pop up. Usually ground teams paint a bright X on them, but not always.

[W4DFW]

I've already seen the speculation that he somehow "faked" his death, for reasons not all to clear to me. Some personal problems that were soon coming to light . . .

At his age, a heart attack or stroke could have done him in.

I thought the plane he was flying had an automatic satellite locater beacon on it and many are perplexed why the beacon has not been found.

I've flown gliders in wave over Minden to nearly 30,000 feet. Fossett was a glider pilot who recently set the World's altitude record in a glider at over 50,000 feet. He was well aware of the types of conditions that one can find themself in flying in the area he was in.

Strange, how such experienced pilots who have done such extraordinary flights are lost doing what seems such a routine thing.

[ka5piu]

Quote[/b] (nq6v @ Sep. 09 2007,16:43)]As a teen, I was, for a very short while, a cadet CAP member.I couldn"t juggle this and #High School and ROTC and a part time job, and they were all rich kids in this paticular unit who did not like me much, so I dropped. But they showed a few films. On one, it was shown that known and unknown wrecks always pop up. Usually ground teams paint a bright X on them, but not always.
Hello.

True, most cadets come from families who are already involved with aviation, and that means money.
And, yes, if somebody has a can of spray paint, an X over the top.
The trouble is that sometimes the ground crew does not bring a can, and even if they do, the paint fades quite quickly.
I would not think ROTC and CAP mix very well, add to that your economic position and you were behind the 8 ball.
This is true to this day, poor kids do poorly with the well to do kids.

[N0WVA]

Its entirely possible that he and his craft were abducted by some sort of aliens.

[nq6v]

People do disappear, from time to time.Sometimes, they are disappeared.
During my investigations of persons in power, I have found those seeking greater power can rationalize the abuse of power the law does not grant them. When they achive their goal, they hustle about, distancing them from those who disappeared people for them during their quest for power.When they get to the top, they worry constantly that their acts in the past will be discovered, and realize they did not need to disappear people, that their psychology at the time muddled the difference between justification and rationalization. Perhaps this person was disappeared by a person seeking great power he does not have yet.

[K9STH]

Although an emergency locator beacon is required in all aircraft licensed by the FAA, there are always possibilities as to why it has not been heard.

The first is that it had not been maintained properly and the batteries were "dead" or else they went "dead" after a very short period of time.

Next there is the possibility that the unit was destroyed in the crash.

Then there is the possibility that the aircraft is located in a deep ravine or crevass and the signal is just not able to propagate very far.

I remember that it was late 1973 or early 1974 that the FAA first required ELTs be installed in private aircraft. At that time I owned a 1959 Cessna 150 and had to procure an ELT for it. At the time some of the ELT manufacturers had a "special" if a dozen of the units were acquired at the same time the price was considerably cheaper. So, I bought 12, installed one in the Cessna 150, and sold the rest to other aircraft owners at a price that was slightly less than the single unit quantities but enough to show a "tidy" profit.

Those units put out a signal on 123.5 MHz and on the 2nd harmonic of 247.0 MHz which is the military emergency frequency.

Glen, K9STH

[W0LPQ]

Glen that would be 121.5 / 243.0 ... new ELT's are 406 and there is still word that the 121.5 beacons will not be sat located after 2009 or so. That is being argued by many in the aviation community.

[K9STH]

I know! Just a slight memory lapse!

It definitely is 121.5 and 243!

Glen, K9STH