A year after adventurer Steve Fossett disappeared while flying near a friend’s ranch in Nevada, a group of 28 searchers are back in the field hoping to find evidence of his fate. The team began its search on Aug. 23 and plans to continue through next Wednesday, The Associated Press reported this week. They are focusing on a new area, west of the area previously scoured, based on new information that a radar track that was believed to show Fossett’s route may instead have been the track of a local pilot who was flying over the area at the same day and time. This week’s effort is the largest since the main search was called off last year, though other groups have continued to explore the region on a smaller scale.
“We’re pushing harder, leaving people in the field longer. We’ve got the lay of the land now,” Robert Hyman, one of the team leaders, told the AP on Tuesday. Searcher Lew Toulmin added that he hoped the searchers would have a breakthrough on Sept. 3, a year to the day after Fossett vanished. “We hope that Wednesday’s the day,” Toulmin said. “That would be nice.”
Fossett was declared legally dead in February, though speculation persists that he may still be alive under an assumed identity.
