New leads in search for Fossett
Teams searching for missing US adventurer Steve Fossett plan to comb a rugged area near Death Valley after receiving new information.
Authorities said they were relying on leads from Air Force experts and would search by air and foot.
Gary Derks, the Nevada state Department of Public Safety official in charge of the search, said the Air Force analysed images picked up by radar and satellite and “picked up what could be Mr Fossett, his track”.
“It gives us an idea, if it’s him, what direction he was going,” Derks said of the wealthy adventurer, missing for more than three weeks.
Derks said the area stretches about 100 miles to the southeast from where Fossett took off on September 3, an airstrip on a million-acre ranch owned by hotel mogul Barron Hilton.
Maps show the area would include Nevada’s remote Silver Peak Range, close to Death Valley National Park in California. “There’s nothing definite, nothing concrete,” Derks said. “These are just some hits that we want to track.” Search planes will fly over the area Saturday and Sunday, Derks said.
Fossett, 63, has not been seen since he left on what was supposed to be a short ride in a lightweight acrobatic plane to scout locations to break the land speed record.
