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Steve Fossett Missing

Posted by kdawson on from the high-flier dept.

jd writes "Steve Fossett, the first person to fly a plane around the world without refueling, the first person to fly around the world in a balloon, and possibly the record-holder for the highest-altitude glider flight, is missing in Nevada. He is reported to have taken off in a light aircraft last night and has not been seen since. As he had filed no flight plan, would-be rescuers have no idea where to even begin looking. The plane took off from a private airstrip on a ranch at the south end of Smith Valley in western Nevada."

3 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Check Ireland by Maniakes · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's where Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan ended up when he tried to fly from New York to California.

    --
    A legparnasom tele van angolnaval.
    1. Re:Check Ireland by hansamurai · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And that made for one of the greatest newspaper headlines ever!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wrong_Way_Corri gan.jpg

      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
  2. Doesnt look good... by tgatliff · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of the other article says he took off flying a Citaborea, which means he was going up to do aerobatics because this is a quite slow airplane for anything else.... (NOTE: Citaborea means aerobatic spelled backwards). I do not remember him being an experienced aerobatic pilot, which is a considerably different skill than just being a pilot. Meaning, I feel I am a great pilot, but a not so good aerobatic pilot other than weather related recovery type turns. I would guess he probably got in a little over his head while doing aerobatics, and went down.

    I hope this is not the case, but this type of thing is fairly common in the aerobatic world. Hence, the reason why they require the use of parachute(s)...