San Francisco - The enigma of the disappearance of adventurer Steve Fossett moved closer to resolution Thursday as federal transportation officials were set to examine the wreckage of a light plane found near the site where objects apparently belonging to Fossett were discovered earlier in the week.

Searchers discovered the wreckage late Wednesday evening in a rugged wooded area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains after fanning out in a 15-kilometre radius from where hikers discovered ID cards, clothes and some 1,000 dollars in cash that appeared to belong to Fossett, authorities said.

But they warned the dozens of light planes had crashed in the area in recent years and there was no guarantee that the newly-found wreckage was Fossett's missing aircraft.

There was greater certainty about the other items. Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles, confirmed that the copy of a pilot's licence he had received matched Fossett's details.

"The certificate number and date of issue on the document in the photo matches the information we have for Mr Fossett in our database," he said. Other information, including Fossett's date of birth and his address, also matched, he said.

The items were found by ski-shop owner Preston Morrow near the remote recreation town of Mammoth Lakes close to the California- Nevada border about 500 kilometres north of Los Angeles. He handed them over to the police after an approach to the Fossett family was rebuffed.

The new information was enough to reconvene a search that was halted over six months ago when air and ground search failed to discover any trace of Fossett, 63, or the light plane that he was flying when he disappeared in September 2007.

The previous searches had not concentrated on the area around Mammoth Lakes. Fossett's widow, Peggy, said she hoped the new discovery would help bring closure to her husband's disappearance.

"I am aware of the search underway for my husband, Steve Fossett, in the Mammoth Lakes area of Madera and Mono counties, California, following the discovery by a hiker of personal items that appear to belong to my husband," she said in the statement.

"I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband's remains. I am grateful to all of those involved in this effort."

Fossett disappeared as he was apparently trying to find a site to attempt an assault on the world land speed record.

Born in Jackson, Tenn., in 1944, Steve Fossett grew up in Garden Grove, Calif., and climbed his first mountain as a 12-year-old Boy Scout and got his pilot's license in college.

He became famous and cheered across the world for his staggering records. He managed to become the first person to single-handedly fly a balloon (2002) and airplane (2005) around the globe without any intermediate landings or refueling.

In 2006, Steve Fossett set a new record for “distance without landing” after 76 hours and 43 minutes of dramatic flight across 41,467 kilometers. He took off his ultra-light plane the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer from Florida and flew over the Atlantic twice before landing in a tourist resort on the south coast of England.

As an aviator, pilot and adventurer, the Californian broke and set over 100 world records, half of them still ruling the statistics.
Fossett has survived numerous near-misses and harrowing crash landings over the years, including a 9,000-meter (29,000-foot) plummet into the Coral Sea off Australia because of a storm-shredded balloon.

In another incident he managed to walk for almost 50 kilometers and get help after making an emergency landing.

Steve Fossett has been declared legally dead in February by a Chicago court, five months after the airplane he was flying with disappeared over Nevada desert.