KapitanSparrow
10-01-2008, 11:02 AM
Some of lost air adventurer Steve Fossett's personal belongings may have been found in the California woods not far from the Nevada state line, FOX News has learned.
A California fire captain and her husband, hiking near their home in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., stumbled across what appear to be two cards with Fossett's name on them that were issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in Illinois.
They also found a small amount of cash and a sweat jacket. Mammoth Lakes Police were interviewing the couple about the find, but early reports suggest the cards are authentic, sources told FOX News.
The papers were tattered and crumpled on the ground; the weather-worn jacket was nearby.
The hikers didn't find any signs of the light plane Fossett, 63, was flying when he disappeared last September, but aviation experts said that doesn't mean the items are bogus.
Fossett was the first person to ride the jet stream around the world in a balloon. He climbed some of the world's tallest and toughest mountains, sailed and set a number of world records.
He was declared legally dead in February.
In August, an attorney for Fossett's widow pleaded for an end to speculation circulating on the Internet that the millionaire balloonist and air adventurer may have faked his own death, possibly because he was heavily in debt.
Fossett, who made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets, took off from a private airstrip in Nevada last September on a solo flight in a light plane.
He never returned, and searchers have found no trace of the plane.
Authorities said it was probable that it went down in rugged country, and that finding wreckage would be hard.
A California fire captain and her husband, hiking near their home in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., stumbled across what appear to be two cards with Fossett's name on them that were issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in Illinois.
They also found a small amount of cash and a sweat jacket. Mammoth Lakes Police were interviewing the couple about the find, but early reports suggest the cards are authentic, sources told FOX News.
The papers were tattered and crumpled on the ground; the weather-worn jacket was nearby.
The hikers didn't find any signs of the light plane Fossett, 63, was flying when he disappeared last September, but aviation experts said that doesn't mean the items are bogus.
Fossett was the first person to ride the jet stream around the world in a balloon. He climbed some of the world's tallest and toughest mountains, sailed and set a number of world records.
He was declared legally dead in February.
In August, an attorney for Fossett's widow pleaded for an end to speculation circulating on the Internet that the millionaire balloonist and air adventurer may have faked his own death, possibly because he was heavily in debt.
Fossett, who made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets, took off from a private airstrip in Nevada last September on a solo flight in a light plane.
He never returned, and searchers have found no trace of the plane.
Authorities said it was probable that it went down in rugged country, and that finding wreckage would be hard.