Steve Fossett, born James Stephen Fossett on April 22nd 1944, is best known for his five non-stop flights around the world, one of which being in a balloon. Beside this, he was also an American businessman, a magnate of the financial services industries, an aviator, sailor and adventurer. His record-setting total amounts to a whopping 116, in five different sports, of which only 66 were beaten until 2007.

Fossett was reported missing on September 3rd, 2007, when the aircraft he was piloting above the Nevada Desert never returned. The CAP and other volunteers started a rescue mission which soon turned into a massive search mission. It lasted for over a month, and when neither Fossett nor his plane turned up, the CAP mission was called off. However, volunteers (Fossett’s fans) kept searching, while being privately funded and organized, even after the 2nd of October 2007. Following a request from the adventurer’s wife, the state declared Steve Fossett legally dead in 2008, February 15th.

It has been speculated in the past that this disappearance is Steve Fossett’s attempt at faking his own death. Supporters of this theory, however, haven’t brought forward any type of tangible evidence.

Recently, some of Fossett’s personal belongings we stumbled upon by a wandering hiker, in California. The hiker saw the name on the papers, James Stephen Fossett, and was surprised at the amount of 100 dollar bills in the wallet – he didn’t make the connection between the name on paper and the multimillionaire, known to the wide public as Steve Fossett. He took his findings to the police, where he was informed of the significance of his discovery. The following day, the hiker returned to the same place, accompanied by his wife and a few friends. They managed to find a sweater, but there was no sign of the aircraft or any human remains in the region.

The hiker’s findings had a massive effect on the local authorities. After a few days, a full-on aerial search party was assembled, and they discovered a plane wreck, identified as Fossett’s missing aircraft – a small, singe-engine Bellanca plane. The local authorities account the lack of found remains on wild animals, but this is just a theory, as the search party continues its mission. Fossett’s wife is aware of this turn of events but she appears to have lost hope that her husband may still be alive. She stated she awaits the discovery of her husband’s remains.

The aerial team seems more optimistic, as they have not been called off from searching. However, they must hurry as the area currently under their surveillance is expecting the first snowfall in a matter of weeks. The territory is also one difficult to cover - the many crevasse, rocks, hills and caves are hard to track by plane, and a foot-search would take too long.