There has been a massive search effort for Steve Fossett, millionaire adventurer since he disappeared Monday after heading out to find dry lake beds suitable for his next adventure of breaking the land speed record.
Steve Fossett has 116 records in five different sports, 76 of which still stand.
Over 600 rescuers on the ground and in the air have been looking for him for 2 days now.
According to the LA Times, there have been reported possible sightings of his plane in a river valley and other spots along the eastern Sierra, which has given encouragement to his friends that believe his "tough old boot" status is reason to believe he may still be alive.
Fossett, who made his fortune in the financial services industry, is best known for his five world record nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo airplane pilot
www.stevefossett.com is keeping running updates up on the search.
Nevada, USA - 5 September 2007 - The search for Steve Fossett resumed this morning. Major Cynthia Ryan of the Civil Air Patrol advised at her 10:00 a.m. (local time) news briefing that at least 9 aircraft (6 fixed wing and 3 helicopters) had taken off some 3 hours earlier in improved weather conditions. High winds had forced the search to halt late Tuesday afternoon. According to Major Ryan, one of the search aircraft is fitted with sophisticated hyperspectral imaging equipment, capable of electronically recognizing and distinguishing ground objects.
The systematic grid search is now focused on a 600 square mile area south of the Flying M Ranch along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains - from Yerington, Nevada to Bishop, California as well as along the Walker River basin.
We continue to receive many messages of support and prayer from all over the world and thank everyone for their concern, sharing our optimism that Steve will soon be found safe and well.
From AFP we see that that advanced technology is being used to search for him also.
An aircraft with state-of-the-art imaging technology joined the search for aviator Steve Fossett on Wednesday, two days after a plane flown by the adventurer vanished over a rugged region of Nevada.(Spelling corrections made)
Six planes and three helicopters resumed operations over a 600 square mile (155,000-hectare) region of mountain terrain after failing to find any trace of Fossett during searches late Monday and Tuesday.
Fossett, who has survived numerous brushes with death during a series of record-breaking solo flights around the world by balloon and airplane, has not been heard from since taking off from a private airstrip early Monday.
Officials have described the task of locating Fossett's possible whereabouts as "like searching for a needle in a haystack."
Rescue planes were boosted by clear skies and calm flying conditions on Wednesday after being buffeted by turbulence during earlier searches..
Major Cynthia Ryan of the Civil Air Patrol revealed that high-tech hyperspectral imaging equipment known as ARCHER, which is capable of distinguishing between objects on the ground, was also being deployed on board a plane flown in from authorities in neighboring Utah.
"ARCHER is essentially something used by the geosciences," Ryan said. "It's pretty sophisticated stuff ... beyond what the human eye can generally see."
Ryan said information about Fossett's plane would be input into ARCHER, which would then be able to compare the dimensions of the data to objects found on the ground.
"It might see boulders, it might see trees, it might see mountains, sagebrush, whatever, but it goes 'Not that' or 'Yes, that,'" she said.
"The amazing part of this is that it can see as little as 10 percent of the target, and extrapolate from there."
I will continue to update and events warrant.
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