Oct 3, 2008 4:44 pm US/Central
Mystery Of Fossett's Fatal Crash Investigated
Possibilities Include Pilot Error, Weather, Mechanical Failure
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The wreckage of Steve Fossett's single-engine plane was found by a hiker on a California mountainside.
Mono County Sheriff's Search & Rescue/CBS
Federal investigators are trying to determine why adventurer Steve Fossett's plane crashed on a California mountainside.
As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident and sees several possibilities.
Though it's been more than a year since Fossett disappeared, searchers are racing to recover the newly discovered remains and wreckage of the plane, before bad weather sets in, just as it apparently did the day of his flight.
The area where the plane crashed is just west of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., near a landmark called the Devil's Post Pile. That's about 65 miles, or well within range from Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, where Fossett and his wife, Peggy Fossett, were staying.
Civil air patrol volunteers flew right over the spot at least 19 times during last year's search and never saw anything.
"We flew in in a helicopter and even knowing where the site was, I couldn't find it," said Mark Rosenker, of the NTSB.
The California National Guard is airlifting evidence, ranging from small bits to larger chunks of wreckage including the engine and shoulder harness fastener, from a 400-foot debris field just below the 10,000 foot level on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada.
The NTSB hopes it will help determine what caused the crash. But, according to one Chicago aviation consultant, it won't be easy.
"The area where it went down, the type of aircraft, the way it was hit, the deterioration over the past year are all working against them," said Rob Mark of
JetWhine.com.
But the process has begun.
"We actually lay out the parts and being the process of making sure we have the entire fuselage so that we know that nothing broke off to have caused the accident," Rosenker said.
But it may also be what they don't have, rather than what they do, which will determine how successful they are at pinpointing the cause of the crash.
"We're kind of assuming that he flew into something beyond his capabilities but we don't know if the man didn't have a heart attack or a stroke or something that caused him to lose control of the airplane," Mark said.
Fossett was extremely diligent about the required physical exams for pilots. His chunky physique belied the shape he was in. He was able to climb 14,000-foot peaks, and compete in the Iron Man triathlon, while hardly having to train.
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