Fossett searchers pursue debris

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. -- Authorities say teams searching by air for any sign of adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished on a solo flight more than a year ago, have spotted what might be wreckage.

Madera County sheriff's spokeswoman Erica Stuart would not reveal the location of the reported aerial sighting and declined to provide any more information. Authorities had said searchers were combing a 10-mile radius around the place where a hiker this week had found items that belonged to Fossett.

Stuart said a ground search team will follow up with the possible wreckage site today.

About a dozen searchers were to remain in the field overnight, aiming to resume the effort before winds pick up and an expected afternoon snowstorm blankets the area.

"Whatever we do, we've got to do it tomorrow," Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said late Wednesday.

A ground team was en route to the site Wednesday night, and authorities would be able to confirm there is actual wreckage and whether it belongs to Fossett this morning, Stuart said.

Also Wednesday, authorities confirmed two documents, including a pilot's license, belonged to Fossett. The other document was a membership card in the Soaring Society of America. A third document, a membership card in an aeronautics association, was too damaged for identification.

Fossett, 63, disappeared more than a year ago while on a solo pleasure flight from a remote ranch in Nevada. The subsequent search for him spanned 24,000 square miles, including the high country of the eastern Sierra Nevada.

Hiker Preston Morrow says he found the cards and about $1,000 in cash Monday tangled in a bush just west of Mammoth Lakes. He gave the items to police Wednesday.

Morrow said he found no sign of a plane or any human remains.

Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February after a search that covered 24,000 square miles.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, said in a statement Wednesday that she was aware of Morrow's discovery.

"I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband's remains," she said. "I am grateful to all of those involved in this effort."

Fossett made millions in the securities market but is best known for the 116 records he set in gliders, powered aircraft, balloons, and sailboats. In 2005, he became the first person to fly a fixed-wing aircraft alone around the world without stopping or refueling.

Aviators had flown over Mammoth Lakes, about 90 miles south of the ranch, in the search for Fossett, but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane. The most intense searching was concentrated north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.

Morrow, 43, who works in a Mammoth Lakes sporting goods store, said he initially didn't know who Fossett was. He showed the items to co-workers Tuesday, and one of them recognized Fossett.

"It was just weird to find that much money in the backcountry, and the IDs," Morrow said. "My immediate thought was it was a hiker or backpacker's stuff, and a bear got to the stuff and took it away to look for food or whatever."

Morrow said he returned to the scene Tuesday to search further with his wife and three others, including a videographer who took video and photographs during the trip.

During that search, the group did not find any airplane wreckage or human remains, Morrow said. They did find a black Nautica pullover fleece, size XL, in the same area.

Morrow said he consulted attorney David Baumwohl. They initially tried to contact the Fossett family but were unable to get through.

"We figured if it was us, we'd want to know first. We wouldn't want to learn from the news," Baumwohl said.

Baumwohl and Morrow tried to contact the law firm that handled the death declaration. When they weren't successful, they decided to turn everything over to the police, the attorney said.

Mammoth Lakes is at an elevation of more than 7,800 feet on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, where peaks top 13,000 feet. This year's biggest search for Fossett focused on Nevada's Wassuk Range, more than 50 miles north of Mammoth Lakes. That search ended last month.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.