Wreckage Found Isn't Fossett's Plane

First overnight search completed; aviator has been missing since Monday
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 6, 2007 3:00 PM CDT
Wreckage Found Isn't Fossett's Plane
Crew members of an Army Blackhawk helicopter prepare to take off from the Minden Airport, to join in the search for aviator Steve Fossett, in Minden, Nev. , Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007. Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett vanished somewhere across a landscape of soaring peaks and sagebrush desert notorious...   (Associated Press)

Wreckage found yesterday has turned out not to be that of missing aviator Steve Fossett's plane, so the search goes on. The Nevada Air Patrol's first overnight search, using a high-tech thermal imaging camera, yielded nothing. Nevertheless, searchers remain hopeful. "If anyone has to be lost out there, this guy has the skills to survive," says one official.

What was briefly thought to be Fossett's plane was actually older debris at an unmapped site. The search area has been expanded from 600 to 10,000 square miles, CNN reports, and searching has been almost entirely aerial because the terrain is so rough. An official says it will take a week under ideal conditions to cover the area. (More Steve Fossett stories.)

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