AP News, September 14th, 2007
Volunteers have searched and re-searched an area nearly twice the size of New Jersey for missing millionaire Steve Fossett, and now, they're planning to search it again.
Fossett, the famed survivalist and aviator, vanished during a flight earlier this month, believed to have only a bottle of water with him. The search for his plane in the rugged Nevada landscape entered its 12th day Friday.
Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan said while the search may be tedious, volunteers usually find what they are looking for. By Friday, government-backed searchers and private pilots had covered nearly 20,000 square miles, authorities said.
"Experience has shown us, if we just keep going back, looking at areas at different times of the day, in different lighting conditions" the plane eventually turns up, Ryan said. "We have about an 87 percent success rate."
Fossett, 63, has sailed and flown around the world, setting numerous aviation and distance records. The search for him has included the Civil Air Patrol, Nevada National Guard, search and rescue ground crews and private pilots. Organizers estimate the effort has so far cost more than $500,000.
Friends of Fossett's also have launched a Web site where Web surfers worldwide can get involved by downloading Google Earth satellite photos of the search area and reporting anything they see.
Tips _ most of them false alarms _ have poured in from far and wide _ the Netherlands, Belize, Australia.
Ryan said the effort is distracting at best, and emphasized that old-fashioned searching was more likely to find Fossett.
"I don't mean to sound like a naysayer," she said. "I'm a total geek. I love technology. But in this case, it's a bunch of people trying to do something they don't have the training for."
___
Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Steve Fossett: http://www.stevefossett.com
