The US National Transportation Safety Board discovered body parts amid the wreckage of pilot and adventurer Steve Fossett’s Bellanca Super Decathlon today after the aircraft was found on a mountainside near Mammoth Lakes, California yesterday. Fossett disappeared the morning of 3 September 2007 after he departed a Nevada airstrip on a 2-2.5h pleasure flight. Investigators have sent the remains for DNA testing.

A hiker found Fossett’s pilot’s license, some cash and other items on Monday and searchers on Wednesday discovered the aircraft ¼ mile away. It appears that Fossett slammed into the tree-covered mountains at the 10,150ft level the morning of 3 Septembr 2007 after flying to the area from the ranch where he had been vacationing 65mi to the north. A massive search over the month that followed covered 22,000mi2.

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The Civil Air Patrol reports that hundreds of volunteers had participated in the search, even spending 65h during 32 sorties in the area where the plane was ultimately found. However “rugged, mountainous, tree-covered terrain gave CAP less than a 10% probability of detecting debris from the wreckage during aerial flyovers,” said a coordinator of the search.

The NTSB plans to analyze the recovered portions of the aircraft to determine a probable cause of the accident.

Source: FlightGlobal.com

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