Steve Fossett, millionaire businessman,
became famous for his ambitions to break records in aviation, ballooning and
sailing. Fossett has been the first person to fly alone around the world in a
balloon. He was supposed to fly first in an airplane without refueling. Fossett
also broke the record for the world’s longest nonstop flight, 25,677 miles.
He was 63 at the time he disappeared, somewhere
in the Nevada desert, in September last year, trying to break the world
land-speed record in a jet-powered vehicle. Fossett was declared dead on
February 15 by a judge in Chicago, where he had lived.
A team of athletes and mountaineers, led
by geologist Simon Donato, 32, have united in search of Fossett and started
hiking on the California-Nevada Mountains. The 10-member team now focuses on
regions that could have been hidden from the private when military planes
searched for Fossett last year.
The mountains in the area have peaks taller
than 11,000 feet, in the east of the even taller Sierra Nevada. The place to
conduct the search will be Baron Hilton hotel, near the search area, where
Fossett was staying too.
The members of the team will pay their own
expenses and will continue their search efforts on Friday and Saturday, on a 15
to 20 miles surface area a day. They will stay in touch with the Nevada
authorities who searched for Fossett last year. Authorities’ efforts gave the
team maps and other detailed information from last year, to help.
Donato said that Fossett is a hero to many
people and his story ought to have and end and to be known by everybody.
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