Searchers to assess mission

MINDEN -- Crews Saturday continued the aerial and ground search for Steve Fossett, scouring the harsh Nevada landscape for any sign of the famed adventurer or his plane last seen on Labor Day.

Now in its 13th day, organizers with the Civil Air Patrol, Nevada National Guard and state emergency management said authorities plan to meet Monday to assess the operation and decide how to proceed.

Until then, the effort continues as a rescue mission, with hopes, though dimming, that Fossett can be found alive.

"We're still in rescue mode," Maj. Ed Locke of the Nevada Air National Guard said during a media briefing Saturday.

Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan agreed.

"If anyone can pull it off, he can," she said of Fossett, a skilled survivalist who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and the Matterhorn, and who lived through several failed attempts to circle the globe in a balloon.

Fossett, 63, and his wife, Peggy, were staying at the Flying M Ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton over the Labor Day weekend. He took off from the ranch 80 miles south of Reno on the morning of Sept. 3 in a single-engine Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon, a lightweight acrobatic plane.

It was supposed to be a short joyride. A search was launched when he failed to return by noon, the time he said he'd be back.

On Saturday, crews aboard nine Civil Air Patrol planes continued an aerial search from Minden-Tahoe Airport, 30 miles north of the ranch.

The National Guard has been supplying four helicopters and a C-130 plane.

While the public has been encouraged to help in the search for Fossett by looking at satellite images on Google Earth, interference in the sky by an amateur pilot Friday prompted the Federal Aviation Administration, at the urging of search coordinators, to issue a temporary flight restriction in the area.

"He flew through at a low altitude where CAP crews were working," Locke said.

When contacted, the pilot said he wanted to find Fossett and claim a $10,000 reward advertised on YouChoose.net, Locke said.

"This freelance searching is not only dangerous, but will potentially result in the delay or cancellation of all air search missions for Mr. Fossett," search organizers said in a written statement.

The FAA edict bans private aircraft from flying below 2,000 feet above ground level within the search area until further notice.