Tycoon-adventurer missing in Nevada flight

MINDEN, Nev. — Steve Fossett doesn't give up easily. It took him four tries to swim across the English Channel and six to fulfill his dream of becoming the first person to fly around the world solo in a hot-air balloon.

His friends pointed to that persistence as a reason for optimism Tuesday, as searchers in aircraft scoured broad swaths of western Nevada for the adventurer and his plane, last seen Monday morning.

"Steve is a tough old boot," said Sir Richard Branson, the British billionaire who has helped finance many of Fossett's adventures. "I suspect he is waiting by his plane right now for someone to pick him up."

Branson said Fossett, 63, had been scouting for a suitable dry lake bed to make an attempt at breaking the land-speed record. That would add to the list of dozens of marks Fossett claims for speed or distance in balloons, airplanes, gliders, sailboats, cross-country skis and an airship.

He has survived a number of close calls, including a 29,000-foot plunge into the Coral Sea after his balloon ripped during a storm in 1998. He was rescued by a schooner.

Fossett took off alone at 8:45 a.m. Monday from an airstrip at hotel magnate Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, about 70 miles southeast of Reno. A friend reported him missing when he didn't return, authorities said.

Searchers had little to go on because he apparently didn't file a flight plan. "They are working on some leads," Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Ian Gregor said.

Thirteen aircraft were searching for Fossett in addition to ground crews, said Maj. Cynthia Ryan of the Civil Air Patrol. The teams were conducting grid searches over 7,500 square miles — an area larger than Connecticut — but were concentrating on 600 square miles.

"It is a very large haystack, and an airplane is a very small needle, no doubt about it," Ryan said.

The search area is varied, ranging from high-desert terrain with dry lake beds and sagebrush, but also some rugged mountain peaks, she said. Gusty winds were hampering the search, Ryan said.

She added that it is not uncommon when flying out of a remote, private airstrip to do so without filing a flight plan. She said Fossett had "full radio capability" but did not make radio contact with anyone at the ranch after his takeoff. Rescuers also had not picked up any signals from the plane's radios or emergency location transmitter, officials said.

Fossett was flying solo and was carrying two full tanks of gas on board, Branson said. "The ranch he took off from covers a huge area, and Steve has had far tougher challenges to overcome in the past. Based on his track record, I feel confident we'll get some good news soon," he said.

Ryan described Fossett's plane as a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon. The two-seat tandem "tail dragger" is capable of aerobatic maneuvers, Ryan said.

FAA records show the registered owner is Flying M Hunting Club, of Yerington, Nev. The agency certified it Aug. 21, 1980.

Fossett has an application pending before the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a permit to attempt the land-speed record on federal land in north-central Nevada's Eureka County, more than 150 miles away, agency officials said Tuesday.

Fossett, a Stanford University graduate with a master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, went to Chicago to work in the securities business and founded his own firm, Marathon Securities.

In 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon; it took two weeks. The record came after five previous attempts, some of them spectacular and frightening failures. But in a 1997 interview — after his second around-the-world balloon attempt ended in India — Fossett said the most dangerous thing he ever did was fall off his bicycle in Chicago without a helmet on.

"I'm doing these things for personal accomplishment, not the thrills," he said in Stanford University's alumni magazine. "I don't do these things because I have a death wish."

In March 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling, covering 23,000 miles in 67 hours. He and a co-pilot also claim to have set a world glider-altitude record of 50,671 feet in August 2006 over the Andes Mountains.

He also has climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed 47th in the Iditarod dog-sled race in 1992, participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996 and broke the round-the-world sailing record by six days in 2004.

While Fossett has conquered many earthly feats, he has no desire to fly into space.

"I haven't signed up to go into space," Fossett said this year. "I really wouldn't want to go unless I get to be the pilot. I'm not a passenger type of person."

He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July. He told a crowd at the Dayton Convention Center in Ohio he would continue flying.

"I'm hoping you didn't give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done," Fossett said.