Steve Fossett’s plane was located north of Mammoth Lakes Wednesday. A continued search effort eventually turned up a bone fragment, which is currently being analyzed. Photo courtesy Mono County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue

For now, the aircraft and three pieces of identification found by a hiker Monday are the first and only definitive signs of Fossett that searchers and his family have come across since he went missing on Sept. 3, 2007.
The discovery of the missing adventurer’s plane Wednesday afternoon, smashed, burned and broken against the mountainside seven miles north of Mammoth Lakes, left little hope that Fossett would be found alive, but encouraged Fossett’s friends and family with hope that the record-setting millionaire’s remains could be found.
Scattered reports from the NTSB Thursday afternoon claimed that a multi-agency search effort, which includes Inyo, Mono and Madera county SAR teams, had uncovered human remains within a square mile of the crash site.
Those reports, sheriff’s officials later said, are unfounded at this time.
“They do have a piece of bone fragment, but we can’t say it is human just by looking at it,” Mono County Undersheriff Ralph Obenberger said.

Three more fragments of bone were located Friday afternoon, as search crews prepared to pull out of the crash area due to storm warnings.

Authorities seem to have little doubt that Fossett is dead; they are less certain, however, they’ll be able to recover a body, given the nature of the crash and amount of time that has passed since his death.
NTSB acting Chairman Mark Rosenker told a contingent of local, national and international media Thursday morning in Mammoth Lakes that judging from photographs of the wreckage, damage to the aircraft is consistent with a “hard-impact … non-survivable” crash.
There are also signs of a post-impact fire at the crash site, located at 9,700 feet in the Inyo National Forest about seven miles west of Mammoth Mountain and east of the Minarets.
Reports indicate the plane, a Bellanca Super Decathlon belonging to hotel magnate and Fossett friend Barron Hilton, appears to have crashed head-on into a mountainside.
“The crash was so severe that I doubt someone would walk away from it,” Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said at a press conference Wednesday.
Officials have said it is highly likely Fossett was killed instantly.
“There’s not much wreckage left,” Obenberger told the Register Friday. “The plane hit the mountainside at an upper angle, and there is a 400-foot difference between where the plane first hit and where the engine landed.”
But that doesn’t mean Fossett’s remains are unrecoverable, though a veteran search and rescue member with experience at crash sites said high-velocity crashes like this one have the power to spread debris up to a quarter-mile away. That is about how far away the cash and ID cards were from the crash site when they were recovered earlier this week.
With that in mind, searchers – at one point as many as 60 – have been focusing on an area approximately one square mile in size surrounding Fossett’s plane.
“There are about eight counties represented down here in the search, with about 50-60 people and animals,” said Mammoth Lakes Public Information Officer Stuart Brown. “The crash is in a very rugged area with rocks, trees and slopes.”
In addition to contending with the wide search area and difficult terrain, searchers were also in a race against an incoming storm front forecast to bring snow with it.
“The problem is they’re at 9,700 feet, and it’s starting to look like it’s going to snow,” said Madera County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Erica Stuart. “We’re going to continue searching with our crews as long as the weather holds out and they can work up there.”
Crews conducting an aerial search first spotted the plane late Wednesday, and by 11 p.m. authorities were able to confirm that the tail number matched the Bellanca Fossett had been flying on Sept. 3, 2007 when he took from Hilton’s Flying M Ranch near Yerington, Nev.
Fossett had reportedly set out in search of a dry lake bed or other spot suitable for his next attempt at setting a world land speed record.
He supposedly left with only a bottle of water and planned to be away a few hours at the most.
Hundreds of search crews – government and civilian – scoured 20,000 square miles of Nevada and California by air and ground to no avail.
A Chicago judge, at the request of Fossett’s wife, declared the missing aviator dead in February.
Amid speculation about the adventurer’s fate, an elite team of extreme athletes pitched in stamina and some serious legwork to a fruitless search effort in the Nevada desert this summer.
After all the exhaustive searches, it was a chance discovery, made by a local sporting goods store employee, that has finally led authorities to the crash site.
Preston Morrow, who just happened to wander off the trail Monday on his way to Mammoth Lakes, discovered in a bush what were confirmed Thursday to be Fossett’s pilot’s license, FAA ID card, a third ID and $1,005 in cash.
Morrow, his wife, some friends and local bear expert Steve Searles (along with a videographer filming Searles for an Animal Planet special) headed back to the area Tuesday in search of more potential clues, as well as GPS coordinates.
Morrow’s wife found a men’s sweat jacket now thought to be Fossett’s.
The group turned over their information and finds to the Mammoth Lakes Police Department Wednesday morning after failing to get in touch with Fossett’s family.
Aerial and ground searches were almost immediately launched and the plane was spotted by air that night.
Since word of his discovery has spread, Morrow and the Town of Mammoth Lakes have been the subject of intense media attention as the search effort makes headlines around the globe.
Morrow called the attention “overwhelming.”
Fossett’s widow, Peggy, issued a statement this week in which she thanked Morrow. “I especially want to thank Preston Morrow, who made this discovery and turned over Steve’s belongings to the authorities. I am anxious to learn of the circumstances and cause of this tragic accident from the official report of the NTSB,” she said.
The NTSB is expected to release a preliminary report on the crash in the next several weeks, though it could take as long as a year. The agency will not speculate on a cause for the crash until it has exhausted every aspect of its investigation. Its findings will be released in a final report, which could take several years.