Steve Fossett: Dead Or Not Dead?

[hondarobot]

Ordinarily, this sort of question would be in pretty bad taste, given the current circumstances, but this is a case of a guy who was a long time adventurer, thrill seeker, and world record breaker. Some could also say he was an attention hungry uber over-achiever.

Whatever the case, I believe someone like Fossett would get a kick out of bets placed on his survival, especially at this point when it seems very unlikely.

I bet: Alive.

(But honestly, I think he's dead)

I'd make this a poll, but there's just been way too many of those lately.

[TJ347]

Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain by now that were Steve alive, we'd know it, so I think it's safe to say he's dead.

On another note, did you know that Boo Berry cereal is still around? Just bought 12 boxes off of Amazon! Love me some Boo Berry! Now if I could just find a box or two of Fruit Islands cereal and some soy milk, my life would be complete...

[johnb]

do we send, and spend millions upon millions of dollars to send government teams to fly the country for every missing person that is out there? what a fucking joke, and what a fucking joke of a country we are. god fuck us all

[evilash]

Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain by now that were Steve alive, we'd know it, so I think it's safe to say he's dead.

On another note, did you know that Boo Berry cereal is still around? Just bought 12 boxes off of Amazon! Love me some Boo Berry! Now if I could just find a box or two of Fruit Islands cereal and some soy milk, my life would be complete...THey always put those monster cereal out around halloween yo! What about fruit brute & yummy mummy, Frankenberry gay yo...Yeahyah Gay frankenstein yo!

[hondarobot]

Day 6, no information. I'm still betting on "Alive", but that's looking increasingly unlikely. It would be funny if Houston Control received a radio transmission on Sunday morning saying:

"This is Steve Fossett. I've broken yet another world record by flying an airplane to the moon!"

Stranger things have happened. Actually, that's not true, Steve Fossett flying his plane out of the atmosphere would probably be the strangest thing that's ever happened. I guess we'll see.

Oh, and TJ and evilash, fuck off. Stop posting in my threads, weirdos.

[justatransgirl]

So just a question - what does Steve Faucet have to do with transsexuals?

If he's alive he ought to have been able to walk out by now unless he was seriously injured. In that area pretty much if you walk a few days you will hit a road. But there are lots of canyons and wooded areas, and if he crashed in the trees in the mountains it could take a long time to find him from the air.

I will offer him a freebie with me and Jessica if he makes it out - that ought to be incentive... right?

Giggle,
TS Jamie :-)

[SarahG]

If anyone has been following this story in the press lately, did you notice that they've found something like 7 unrelated, previously not known airplane crash sites while searching for him in this area?

[Harrys Boy]

Well I've never bothered to join any other message boards so I like a more diverse topic like this, I was in Nevada the other week and even if he survived the crash I doubt he could survive long in 120deg temperatures that are hitting that desert, hope he is alive though...

[hondarobot]

I just read about the other crash sites being found, some are around 30 years old. I wonder what would happen if they find a recent one?

Pilot: (using megaphone from helicopter) "Is that Steve Fossett down there?"

Crash Victim: "Uh, no, but I'm trapped in the cockpit and I've been without food and water for days"

Pilot: "But you're not Steve Fossett?"

Crash Victim: "My legs are broken and I think there are wolves circling me right now"

Pilot: "Well, if you see Steve Fossett, tell him we're looking for him."

Crash Victim: "I've also gone blind."

Pilot: "What a loser. Steve Fossett wouldn't be crying about going blind. You deserved to crash."

(Helicopter speeds away).


But here we are, still no word on his fate. I'm still voting: Alive.

[SarahG]

I just read about the other crash sites being found, some are around 30 years old. I wonder what would happen if they find a recent one?

Pilot: (using megaphone from helicopter) "Is that Steve Fossett down there?"

Crash Victim: "Uh, no, but I'm trapped in the cockpit and I've been without food and water for days"

Pilot: "But you're not Steve Fossett?"

Crash Victim: "My legs are broken and I think there are wolves circling me right now"

Pilot: "Well, if you see Steve Fossett, tell him we're looking for him."

Crash Victim: "I've also gone blind."

Pilot: "What a loser. Steve Fossett wouldn't be crying about going blind. You deserved to crash."

(Helicopter speeds away).


But here we are, still no word on his fate. I'm still voting: Alive.

They're saying none of the found crash sites thus far have had any remains, probably due to the wolves and other animals in the area.

[Quinn]

Speaking for myself, I'm really hoping for alive, but I would bet that he's dead. Definitely a shame. I've always been a fan of Fossett's driven, thrill-seeking style. He really knew/knows how to make the most out of life.

-Quinn

[BlackAdder]

Yeah, im pretty sure hes deaded...or abducted by aliens

[TJ347]

Oh, and TJ and evilash, fuck off. Stop posting in my threads, weirdos.

S.A.D., honda. I'll post wherever the hell I please.

[hondarobot]

I'm still saying "alive" until they find a body. This guy survived a hot air balloon crash into the ocean, and swam away from that one. It is strange, since he'd know what to do to survive/be found that nothing has turned up yet.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[hondarobot]

I'm beginning to shift my vote towards "Dead", not so much because of Fossett's ability to survive, but on the likely stupidity of the people looking for him. This story was on CNN.com today:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5119519.html

So, this guy is on his way to pick up his girlfriend, in a rural area with presumably very limited avenues of travel, and his car flips into a ditch. For an entire week, neither his family, friends, or his girlfriend, bother to look in the ditches for his car? I've seen the news footage, it's not like it would be hard to find the wreck if anyone put even a minor effort into doing so.

But they didn't. They just printed a flier. The guy spent a week drinking water out of his shoe and eating raw fish until he finally got himself out of the car.

Unbelievable.

[ottorocket]

For such a brilliant guy he didn't even file a flight plan... Which makes me think he might have faked his death for some reason.

[hondarobot]

For such a brilliant guy he didn't even file a flight plan... Which makes me think he might have faked his death for some reason.

I like that idea. Maybe he just headed West across the Pacific, then bailed out over some remote island. He could be building a shelter right now, while some beautiful island girl is grilling up dinner.

That would be pretty cool. It's not totally impossible.

8)

[evilash]

Oh, and TJ and evilash, fuck off. Stop posting in my threads, weirdos.

S.A.D., honda. I'll post wherever the hell I please.Oh man he gone done dead. Yo he so dead. Or maybe he gone done fake his death. Maybe he a squirrel now and solving crime, But i think he dead. Or maybe his plane still in da air in suspended animation and he gone done come back in da future and he be a crime solving futureman then he turn into a squirrel and git run over by a car. Nah, he definitely dead yo. Unless he makin records with tupac. Nah he dead. Or maybe he was never real to begin with. Yeahyah, he a comic book character!

[hondarobot]

Oh, and TJ and evilash, fuck off. Stop posting in my threads, weirdos.

S.A.D., honda. I'll post wherever the hell I please.Oh man he gone done dead. Yo he so dead. Or maybe he gone done fake his death. Maybe he a squirrel now and solving crime, But i think he dead. Or maybe his plane still in da air in suspended animation and he gone done come back in da future and he be a crime solving futureman then he turn into a squirrel and git run over by a car. Nah, he definitely dead yo. Unless he makin records with tupac. Nah he dead. Or maybe he was never real to begin with. Yeahyah, he a comic book character!

Go to your garage, grab whatever toxic substance you can find, and drink it.

Or. . .

Save some small shred of personal dignity, and just stop posting. It's annoying.

[BeardedOne]

At this very moment, he an Emilia are trading technical notes on wind velocity.

[evilash]

Oh, and TJ and evilash, fuck off. Stop posting in my threads, weirdos.

S.A.D., honda. I'll post wherever the hell I please.Oh man he gone done dead. Yo he so dead. Or maybe he gone done fake his death. Maybe he a squirrel now and solving crime, But i think he dead. Or maybe his plane still in da air in suspended animation and he gone done come back in da future and he be a crime solving futureman then he turn into a squirrel and git run over by a car. Nah, he definitely dead yo. Unless he makin records with tupac. Nah he dead. Or maybe he was never real to begin with. Yeahyah, he a comic book character!

Go to your garage, grab whatever toxic substance you can find, and drink it.

Or. . .

Save some small shred of personal dignity, and just stop posting. It's annoying.Come on now i thought you was my boy yo,you and yo wooly mammoth lookin self...Yeahyah!!! Anyway you gone done already went threw my garbage! There aint nothin left!!!

[hondarobot]

At this very moment, he an Emilia are trading technical notes on wind velocity.

They are both figuring out the machinations of the Dharma Initiative.

I'm having fun with evilash, though, right now. He might be the most idiotic human being on the planet right now.

[evilash]

At this very moment, he an Emilia are trading technical notes on wind velocity.

They are both figuring out the machinations of the Dharma Initiative.

I'm having fun with evilash, though, right now. He might be the most idiotic human being on the planet right now.Well you know how to keep an idiot in suspense yo?

[hondarobot]

At this very moment, he an Emilia are trading technical notes on wind velocity.

They are both figuring out the machinations of the Dharma Initiative.

I'm having fun with evilash, though, right now. He might be the most idiotic human being on the planet right now.Well you know how to keep an idiot in suspense yo?

Yes, I do.

[evilash]

At this very moment, he an Emilia are trading technical notes on wind velocity.Amelia Earhart gone done been abducted by aliens and be makin alien porno... Yeahyah she a bad pilot.

[BlackAdder]

i would be the first in line to buy some Emilia Earhart+Alien porn....even if it was bad...She was quite a hottie after all..

[SarahG]

Update for this story.

Interesting; up to EIGHT crash sites they've accidently found looking for this guy... at the rate of roughly one a day!


False leads in Fossett search frustrate

By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 15 minutes ago

RENO, Nev. - Rescue crews searching for famed millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett stumbled upon more false leads Sunday when they discovered more plane wreckage — but didn't find the missing aviator or his plane.
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"Once again, you had your hopes raised and dashed, just as we have," Nevada Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan told reporters during a news conference.

Rescue crews spotted two old wrecks, one of them from a U.S. Navy plane, southeast of the private ranch where Fossett was staying 80 miles southeast of Reno when he took off Monday for what was supposed to be a three-hour flight.

The false alarm further dampened spirits of the rescuers, whose chances of finding the 63-year-old Fossett alive in the rugged, concealing landscape of western Nevada are becoming more and more slim.

"The mood is very somber but very focused," Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford said.

At least eight times during the search, rescue crews have spotted airplane wreckage they thought might be Fossett's only to learn it was from crashes years and sometimes decades ago.

To some, that is an ominous sign of how hard it will be to find the aviator.

"That's always a possibility — that he may never be found," Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford said. "But I'd like to believe that with our state-of-the-art technology, the chances of finding him are much better."

Fossett, a former commodities trader who was the first to circle the globe in a balloon, is considered an expert pilot and survivalist. Search teams have tried to remain optimistic but acknowledged the futility was beginning to take a toll.

"It's not frustrating, but tiring," Nevada National Guard Capt. April Conway said.

Leaders of the search-and-rescue operation have tried to put the best face on the discoveries of previously unknown crash sites. At the very least, they say, the finds have demonstrated that crews can indeed spot small planes from the air.

The search has spread across an area of 17,000 square miles, twice the size of New Jersey. Crews will continue combing sections of that vast landscape, but on Sunday they began focusing on the territory within 50 miles of the ranch. Most crashes occur within that radius during takeoffs or landings, Ryan said.

"We've got close to 100 percent covered, at least in some cursory fashion," Ryan said. "We have to eliminate a lot of territory."

The discovery of at least six previously unknown wrecks in such a short time has been a stark demonstration of the odds against finding Fossett's single-engine Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon.

The Florida-based Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, which is helping coordinate the search, maintains a registry of known plane wreck sites.

The registry has 129 entries for Nevada. But over the last 50 years, aviation officials estimate, more than 150 small planes have disappeared in Nevada, a state with more than 300 mountain ranges carved with steep ravines, covered with sagebrush and pinon pine trees and with peaks rising to 11,000 feet.

"The mountains are quite rugged, and things don't always get found," said Maj. Cynthia Ryan of the Nevada Civil Air Patrol.

Once the search for Fossett is over, or significantly scaled back, inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration likely will be sent to each of the newly discovered wrecks. They will try to identify the pilots and bring closure to their families, agency spokesman Ian Gregor said.

No human remains have been found at any of the crash sites discovered so far. But that's not a surprise, given their age and that the region is populated by coyotes and mountain lions.

News of the old wrecks has prompted inquiries from people wondering if the pilots or passengers may be long-lost family members.

"We received an e-mail from (a Florida man) and he said 'You know, that could be the wreckage of my father's airplane and it dates back to 1964.' He said if we can possibly find out any more he'd be happy to know about it," Ryan said.

Searchers are holding out hope of finding Fossett, said Sanford, the Lyon County undersheriff.

"With the resources and assets we have, I feel comfortable we'll find the plane in the near term," Sanford said. "Whether it'll be by us, a hunter or a skier, we'll find it. I like to believe the glass is half full."

[rvince]

He's probably trying to get the 'longest unfound pilot after a crash' record.

[hondarobot]

He's probably trying to get the 'longest unfound pilot after a crash' record.

Judging from the number of other crashes found during the search, he's got serious competition for that record.

;)

At this point, I'm 50% leaning towards "dead". The poor bastard never even got to ride in his buddy Branson's spaceship.

It's not over until it's over, though, he could still pull through. I'm saying 50% probability.

[Harrys Boy]

Just read on the internet that rescuers are trying to find him with the help of google earth! I think that means all hope of finding him alive is over..

[hondarobot]

Just read on the internet that rescuers are trying to find him with the help of google earth! I think that means all hope of finding him alive is over..

Yeah, these "rescue people" are brilliant.

"I've got an idea! Let's Google Earth: Steve Fossett! If that doesn't work, we'll use magic."

He's probably hanging from a tree in a parachute right now, drinking water out of his shoe, stranded next to the remains of D. B. Cooper. I still think he's alive. Probably in pretty rough shape, but I'm not giving up hope completely yet.