Molly
10-02-2008, 07:46 AM
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A photocopy provided by the Madera County Sheriff's Department shows the reverse side of a FAA identification card that appears to belong to Steve Fossett.
http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Video/081002/tdy_okwu_fossett_081002.vsmall.jpg
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that it has dispatched investigators to California to investigate the crash of a small plane that "appears to be the aircraft piloted by adventurer Steve Fossett."
Searchers began combing a rugged part of eastern California on Wednesday after a hiker found identification documents belonging to Fossett earlier in the week. A pilot reported seeing possible wreckage around sunset, said Erica Stuart, spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff's Office.
Stuart would not reveal the exact location of the reported sighting. She said ground crews headed there Wednesday night and hoped to confirm Thursday whether there is actual wreckage and whether it belongs to Fossett.
Authorities said that if Fossett survived a crash, he may have hiked through rugged terrain to the site where the IDs were found.
"There must be some reason those things were found there," Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said at a news conference late Wednesday.
The hiker, Preston Morrow, said he found a Federal Aviation Administration identity card, a pilot's license, a third ID and $1,005 cash tangled in a bush off a trail just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes on Monday. He said he turned over the items to local police Wednesday after unsuccessful attempts to contact Fossett's family
.
The information on the pilot's license — including Fossett's name, address, date of birth and certificate number — matched FAA records,
Read more.... (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26976119/)
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A photocopy provided by the Madera County Sheriff's Department shows the reverse side of a FAA identification card that appears to belong to Steve Fossett.
http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Video/081002/tdy_okwu_fossett_081002.vsmall.jpg
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that it has dispatched investigators to California to investigate the crash of a small plane that "appears to be the aircraft piloted by adventurer Steve Fossett."
Searchers began combing a rugged part of eastern California on Wednesday after a hiker found identification documents belonging to Fossett earlier in the week. A pilot reported seeing possible wreckage around sunset, said Erica Stuart, spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff's Office.
Stuart would not reveal the exact location of the reported sighting. She said ground crews headed there Wednesday night and hoped to confirm Thursday whether there is actual wreckage and whether it belongs to Fossett.
Authorities said that if Fossett survived a crash, he may have hiked through rugged terrain to the site where the IDs were found.
"There must be some reason those things were found there," Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said at a news conference late Wednesday.
The hiker, Preston Morrow, said he found a Federal Aviation Administration identity card, a pilot's license, a third ID and $1,005 cash tangled in a bush off a trail just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes on Monday. He said he turned over the items to local police Wednesday after unsuccessful attempts to contact Fossett's family
.
The information on the pilot's license — including Fossett's name, address, date of birth and certificate number — matched FAA records,
Read more.... (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26976119/)
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