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Fossett lost, but Ogle found

A fascinating tale from the SF Chronicle.

Those of you who are not from the area who are wondering how anyone in the modern world could get lost with all the electronic aids available and the preponderance of telephones, radios, and a McDonalds every 10 miles, you should be aware that this is some of the most remote, most difficult terrain in the lower 48 states. You have a better chance of being found on the backside of Mars than you do if you crash in this part of the world.

When I was a kid living in Northern Nevada, a private plane that departed from Stead AFB went missing one day. It took 10 years to finally locate the missing aircraft and it was only 15 miles from the end of the runway.

It was found by accident at the bottom of a ravine. I suspect that this too will be the fate of Steve Fossett, to be found by a hiker 30 or 40 years from now.

Posted @ September 10, 2007 08:06 AM | Current Affairs

Comments

The link doesn't work because it has "mailto:" at the beginning (mailto:http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/10/MNF0S2BJT.DTL)

Take that out, and

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/10/MNF0S2BJT.DTL

will work just fine.

Posted by: Paul Gordon at September 11, 2007 06:18 AM

thanks for that. now corrected.

Posted by: frank martin at September 11, 2007 06:52 AM

The thought has crossed my mind, if Steve, who has always lived an exiciting life, just thought, "Oh well, maybe I'll just fly off into the 'Wild Blue Yonder' rather than taking the posible chance of living out those last remaining years no longer flying, which I love, and instead under a nurses care?" ....Just thinking..

Posted by: Blogengeezer at September 13, 2007 07:53 PM

I thought that he was going from Hiltons place to somewhere and soeone on the destination side reported him missing, which gives you a set of possible routes, but as it turns out, he went out on a scouting trip, to look at nevada dry lakes for a possible run at the land speed record. The idea being he would return to Hiltons place at the end of the day.

Well, theres a hell of a lot dry of dry lakes in Nevada, in all directions of the compass. He could have landed, and broken his leg for all we know,which ould explain why the ELT didnt go off. He could have turned into a peak while doing slow turns over a dry lake that met his needs, but the thing is, its hard to nail down just exactly where to look when you have absolutely no idea where he was going.

Posted by: frank martin at September 13, 2007 08:23 PM