Pat Dollard | Young Americans

What are everyone’s thoughts on what happened to Steve Fossett? Is he dead and gone? Lost and wandering wherever the craft went down? Or, perhaps, intentionally “missing”???

This photo is from this 9/07 article Geeks Spot Fossett??

The first of two searches for millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett got underway on the Nevada-California border on Monday, nearly one year after the aviator’s mysterious disappearance.

A group led by Canadian adventurer Simon Donato began a week-long search on Monday, hoping to solve the mystery of what happened to Fossett after he took off for a brief solo flight on September 3 and never returned.

Fossett, 63, who was flying a single-engine Citabria Super Decathlon, was never found despite a massive search that saw dozens of aircraft take to the skies to help scour the region where he disappeared.

In February, an Illinois judge declared Fossett legally dead at the request of his widow, who issued a recent statement that there were “no further plans for additional searching.”

Donato, who could not be reached for comment on Monday, said over the weekend his 10-member team includes paramedics and expert hikers who would search remote canyons and forested regions inaccessible to most.

If Donato’s search is unsuccessful, explorer Robert Hyman intends to lead a team in August to conduct a similar volunteer search.

His group, made up of experts in aviation, hiking, mountains and climbing, has no fixed timetable for the length of the search.

Hyman, an investor who has led expeditions at Mount Everest and throughout Central America, said finding Fossett could be crucial to understanding why last year’s search-and-rescue efforts failed.

“They really brought it all out, so why didn’t they find him?” Hyman said. “The answer must be that he can’t be seen from the air. What’s blocking the eyes in the sky? He’s probably under rocks, under a ledge.

“We just want to find Steve and we want to help with the methodology with search and rescue.”

Both Donato and Hyman are members of the Explorers Club, an international adventure-enthusiasts organization of which Fossett was also a member.

Fossett’s iconic status and the unusual circumstances around his demise have brought comparisons to the enduring question of what happened to aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished over the Pacific Ocean during a round-the-world flight in 1937 and was never found.

“There is something of a parallel there, it’s simply a mystery,” said Explorer Club spokesman Jeff Stolzer.

“Steve was a beloved member of the club and an amazingly nice man. People were really saddened when he disappeared. They feel like it’s almost an obligation to find out what happened.”

(AFP)