Search for Steve Fossett is formally suspended

CARSON CITY -- The search for millionaire aviator Steve Fossett, who disappeared a month ago in Northern Nevada, was formally suspended Tuesday after what the Civil Air Patrol described as one of the largest efforts to locate a missing plane in modern history.

The decision came after renewed efforts over the weekend proved unsuccessful. Planes and dozens of search and rescue personnel on the ground scoured a rugged area southeast of where Fossett was last seen taking off Sept. 3 from an airstrip on hotel executive Barron Hilton's sprawling ranch.

With deer-hunting season opening in many areas of the state, officials said they hope that one of the thousands of hunters hiking through wilderness areas will come across the single-engine plane that Fossett had borrowed from Hilton for what was supposed to be a brief flight.

"We've exhausted all our leads at this time," Amy Courter, acting national commander of the Civil Air Patrol, said in a telephone interview. "We didn't find anything. We don't have any conclusive information to follow -- or to say there was a crash and he didn't survive."

Courter said that while the search has been officially suspended, it will be revived if new, viable tips come in. The search, effectively suspended by the Nevada Civil Air Patrol and the Nevada National Guard two weeks ago, had been renewed over the weekend after Air Force experts thought they had detected Fossett's flight path from radar and satellite images.

In all, the search extended over a 20,000 square-mile area, involving Civil Air Patrol pilots from Nevada and seven other states, the Nevada National Guard, the Air Force Rescue and Coordination Center, the state Department of Public Safety and ground crews organized by local authorities.

Experts in radar analysis from the Federal Aviation Administration, Air Force, Navy, National Transportation Safety Board and the Civil Air Patrol also were involved, using high-tech methods to try to determine Fossett's flight path.

Many pilots who know Fossett also joined in the coordinated search, flying out of Hilton's million-acre Flying M Ranch where Fossett and his wife had been staying. The ranch, with its nearly mile-long airstrip, is a haven for aviators from around the world.

"This is very disappointing for us," said Courter, adding that over the past decade, the Civil Air Patrol has been involved in thousands of searches for missing aircraft and only 18 of those missions remain unsolved. In the search for Fossett, there were more than 600 Civil Air Patrol flights.

Fossett "showed us what grit and determination are all about," Courter stated. "In his life, he chased and shattered world records, floating and flying farther and faster than anyone before. His adventures are many and his accomplishments profound. We regret that those adventures may have come to an end."

Fossett, 63, was the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon. He also swam the English Channel, completed the Iditarod sled-dog race and scaled some of the world's best-known peaks.