LAS VEGAS -- Hopes may be fading for finding adventurer Steve Fossett alive, but the search for the missing adventurer has been intensified, with a high of 36 planes in the skies looking for him Wednesday and Thursday morning.
The three dozen planes are staffed by personnel from five wings of the Civil Air Patrol and National Guard officers from Nevada and California. On the ground are sheriff's deputies from six counties in both states.
The effort was suspended at 11 a.m. Thursday because of high winds, but the mammoth search is easily the largest most have ever seen in this region.
Fossett's wife, Peggy, and the couple's wealthy friends have donated planes and personnel. Mr. Fossett disappeared during a weekend visit to a posh ranch about 90 miles southeast of Reno owned by their friend William Barron Hilton, the hotel magnate.
"This is a little bit different because Mr. Fossett has so many friends and he's a world-class aviator and glider, and he enjoys great fame," said Gary Derks, spokesman for the Nevada Office of Emergency Management.
The resources available may be exceptional, but the length of the search and the involvement of so many agencies are not, said Civil Air Patrol Acting National Commander Brig. Gen. Amy Courter.
Thus far, the search has failed to turn up the 63-year-old record-setting aviator, but it has located seven previously undiscovered plane wrecks in the rugged mountains. Searchers intend to return to those crash sites once the Fossett mission ends, but did not investigate them immediately except to determine they weren't Fossett's blue-and-white single-engine Citabria Super Decathlon, said Civil Air Patrol Nevada Wing Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan. One of those planes had external military markings, Ryan said.
The added attention also has provided more leads from the public to chase down, including those yielded from an online search being led by Amazon.Com in which as many as 50,000 volunteers are scouring satellite images of the region.
In Nevada, Derks' agency is involved with about 50 searches each year for missing aircraft with a 95 percent success rate. The longest search he can recall was one earlier this decade that stretched on for nearly four weeks and ended when the plane was found. The pilot, however, was dead.
And nationally, the Civil Air Patrol flies about 110,000 hours a year on missions that range from locating missing planes to providing hurricane-relief aid. The 55,000-member patrol is an all-volunteer auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force with units in every state, a fleet of 530 single-engine planes and a $27.5 million budget. Last year, according to a report to Congress, the patrol was credited with saving 58 lives and finding more than a hundred missing planes.
Courter said the Fossett search also could go on longer than others because the pilot is known to have excellent aviation and survival skills. Fossett is a lifelong Boy Scout who is president of the National Eagle Scouts Association.
"When you have someone at Steve Fossett's level with such incredible training and talent, we know he has a longer chance of survival," she said.
