Search for Fossett to focus on mountainous area

CARSON CITY -- Search-and-rescue teams will comb a rugged mountainous area only 15 miles south of Hawthorne today and Sunday looking for missing adventurer Steve Fossett.

The 60 to 70 ground searchers will look for Fossett in Powell Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of the Flying M Ranch where he took off Sept. 3 in single-engine plane for what was supposed to be a two- to three-hour flight.

Searchers also will look at sites in Long Valley, just south of Powell Canyon. Two large mountains, the 9,530-foot Powell Mountain and the 9,200-foot Table Mountain are within the search area.

"I really am optimistic," said Gary Derks, the state Division of Emergency Management employee who oversees the search effort.

"We think we have good information and that Mr. Fossett will be found."

The Flying M Ranch, about 10 miles south of Yerington, is owned by hotel magnate and flying enthusiast Barron Hilton, the grandfather of socialite Paris Hilton. Fossett took off from Hilton's ranch to look for dry lake beds where he might attempt a world land-speed record. The current record of 760 mph was set in 1997 by British driver Andy Green in the Black Rock Desert, 100 miles northeast of Reno.

Derks said Friday that Hilton has hired a private aircraft company with imaging equipment that will assist ground searchers.

Civil Air Patrol planes and Nevada National Guard helicopters will not fly unless the private company's efforts are not successful.

Derks has been reluctant to state specifically where the search effort will focus out of fear other pilots and four-wheel drive enthusiasts will interfere with the search efforts.

But a source told the Review-Journal where ground searchers will concentrate their efforts today.

Earlier this week, Derks said the state does not want others participating in the search because of the potential liability if someone is injured.

Fossett -- the first person to fly solo around the world in a hot-air balloon -- was last seen by other pilots as he flew near Lucky Boy Pass in Mineral County, only a few miles northwest of Powell Canyon and Powell Mountain.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said this area has been flown over numerous times by Civil Air Patrol planes and Nevada National Guard helicopters, but no trace was detected.

After spending thousands of hours looking for Fossett without success, the CAP and National Guard suspended their search Sept. 16. But leaders of the two organizations said they would resume looking for Fossett if they received promising new tips.

Earlier this week, the Air Force contacted the search and rescue agencies and said through checks of radar they had found what might have been the path taken by Fossett's aircraft on Labor Day.

The CAP launched a search by four planes on Wednesday. But the main search will come today and Sunday, when as many as 70 searchers from Mineral, Lyon and Washoe counties walk into the area where the Air Force suspects Fossett may have crashed.

Since organized methods of locating missing planes were established by the CAP in 1982, only one plane known to be missing in Nevada has not been found. Fifteen to 30 others may remain lost from earlier years.

Since the Fossett search efforts began, the CAP and National Guard have discovered wreckage of six aircraft crashes unknown to them that could date back to the 1960s. The National Transportation Safety Board, which reviews all crashes, however, said they may have investigated these crashes and the wreckage simply was not moved from the crash sites.