Declare Fossett Dead, Wife Asks Court

Search for millionaire adventurer yields no clues

(NEWSER) - Searchers combing Nevada for Steve Fossett's plane have found six other uncharted wrecks, but no sign of the millionaire adventurer who's been missing since Monday. One downed plane thought to be his was found to have been last registered 30 years ago, CNN reports. Fossett's family remains optimistic, despite the discovery that Fossett took off with only one water bottle. More»

Internet volunteer army pores over photos in Fossett search

(NEWSER) - An army of web surfers—even the guy in the next cubicle—has joined the search for missing aviator Steve Fossett. Google Earth has released fresh images of the Nevada desert, and surfers can scour chunks of wilderness for aircraft wreckage. One problem: "We're finding them left and right—Nevada is a graveyard" for downed planes, said a state spokesman. More»

Search parties on the lookout for America's Richard Branson

(NEWSER) - Quixotic aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett, the first person to make it around the world in a balloon, was missing today when his plane disappeared over western Nevada. A search is on for his single-engine Bellanca, but the millionaire entrepreneur didn't file a flight plan, the AP reports. More»

Deranged airline pilots blamed for 345 deaths since 1982

(NEWSER) - We may never know exactly what made JetBlue pilot Clayton Osbon come unhinged, but the New York Daily News has uncovered tragedy in his past. The pilot's father, who Osbon began flying with as a teenager, died in a plane crash in 1995. The elder Osbon and a friend were en route to the Bahamas from Wisconsin when their twin-engine plane lost power near Daytona Beach in Florida. Both men were killed when the plane crashed in a wooded area. More»

Crash likely to remain a puzzle as ocean currents shift debris over a vast area

(NEWSER) - As shifting ocean currents spread debris from Air France Flight 447 over a wider area, the chances rise that it will become one of aviation's unsolved mysteries. CNN rounds up some other biggies:

• Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 while on a round-the-world flight.
• Numerous aircraft have crashed mysteriously in the "Bermuda Triangle," including a team of five Navy bombers that disappeared in 1949 after getting disoriented.