Doesn't it seem kinda odd to be blaming Fossett (or giving him credit) when apparently they just can't find what happened to him?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2462...eath'.html

tbm

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Paddle faster!! I hear banjo music!!

Ok, so - a search and rescue worker is miffed cuz she couldn't find him and so that somehow means 'conspiracy' in which he faked his own death and an insurance agent whose best interest is to not pay out wants to agree.

Absurd. Make claims once you have proof that he's still alive. (Not you tbm.)

Maybe he's just pining for the fjords.

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The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

This is a dead Fossett, he has ceased to be.

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The Leif Ericson Cruiser

It's an ex-Fossett!

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As above, so below

From the article:

Oh, posh! I'm a member of the Civial Air Patrol (currently non-active, as I'm overseas, though we do have one local squadron).

I've also lived, flown, backpacked, and overnighted in that neck of the woods where Fosset disappeared. It's amazing what's out there.

Her next comment tells all:

Are those the six other planes no one was able to find before?

Hmmm... I wonder...

Ok. Make that, "I wonder no more."

It's all probably the result of some heavy campaign-contributing, er, "taxpaying" businessmen who are...

putting the heat on their congressman who're..

putting the heat on the AF who're...

putting the heat on the CAP who're...

putting the heat on the SAR OIC who's...

flipping a lid as she can't really roll it downhill any further, so...

she concocts this "insurance money" fiasco in cahoots with the insurer so that...

both of them get off the hook.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. Human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Keep in mind an extraordinary effort was made in searching for Fossett. Not only the many hours of air and ground search, but Google's satellite image comparison project. Sure, it's not a stretch to think that all those people looking could miss the crash site, but you certainly can't make a comparison with whatever effort was put forward for those other six planes they found.

From the article:

Oh, really? And what might those be?

And the FSS Wx briefer with whom he filed his flight plan and who gave him the Wx briefing he received?

And the FSS with whom he opened his flight plan midair?

And the tower controller who gave him takeoff clearance / or the other pattern aircraft and FBO monitoring Unicom?

And the enroute controller with whom he called for flight following?

Evidently, someone hasn't been doing their homework, and I'm beginning to suspect it's the reporter of dubious integrity who wrote the sensationalistic article.

Really. And that pilot, I presume, has been present at all of Fossett's prior preflight inspections...

Notable.

Not prudent, but aside from an extra bottle of water, that's a common occurrence among desert fliers.

That's a fine aircraft. My flight instructor owned one, and I'm qualified in that nice little taildragger - lightweight, well-powered, very strong, and well-suited for it's FAA-approved acrobatic status. It's +/- G capability makes it perfect for flying in the strong up/down drafts of the Southwest.

I can "dismantle" and hide just about any light airplane in less than five minutes simply by taking a gas-powered sheet-metal saw to the wing roots and hauling the wing halves and the plane, tail first, into the back of a semi. There's nothing special about the Super-Decathlon.

Because that's what happens in the mountains, particularly ones as rugged as those in the Southwest, with tons of nasty fissures galore.

Really? "No proof?" You mean other than the fact that at least one eyewitness saw him take off and the fact that he never arrived and has been missing ever since?

I wonder if Lloyds paid up on Amelia Erhardt. After all, aside from the fact that there was an eyewitness that saw them depart, there was "no proof" of her and Frank's demise, either.

The truth is that he's dead.

And "proper criminal investigations" are only launched when there is evidence of foul play. Since at least one witness saw him take off at a time, date, location, and reason he'd previously announced to friends and family, since he announced an intended destination, and since he didn't arrive, and since there is no evidence of foul play, there is therefore no impetus to launch a "proper criminal investigation."

If the insurance rep is interested in a "proper criminal investigation," he'll have to turn up evidence of foul play.

By the way, there was an investigation into whether there was any evidence of foul play. Result: there was no evidence of foul play.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. Human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Nancy Lieder thinks he's being held at Area 51 and that he got himself captured on purpose.

Well, that settles it!

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T. Anderson

it makes as much sense as anything else i've read about this event.

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The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

The article makes horrible claims about this poor man and they ought to be ashamed of themselves for doing so.

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Actually I've got it on the best authority that he's joined up with Elvis.

Miss Kai, since the end of the cold war and the disbanding of most effective world news organizations, being found to have a shame node in ones head has been grounds for dismissal in most of these businesses. Simply because anybody who does have a sense of shame might not bring you back that one photo that WILL bring your magazine/paper/tv show ratings.

Don't believe me? I bet it wouldn't take me two hours to find pictures of every female member of British Royalty who's ever gotten out of a vehicle awkwardly or ever had a wardrobe malfunction in the light of day. Were I a Brit I would consider this a grave national embarrassment.

(Whoops, there goes that shame node again. Get back in your cage! Hah! Simba! <crack> Hah!)

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

This is from another forum in which I am discussing this subject. The quotes are another forum member's thoughts, what follows is my reply.

"....they found SIX OTHER AIRCRAFT while looking for his. He let someone else pre-flight his plane which up untill that point he NEVER,ever did.Then he flew a plane that day that could be easily dis-mantled.What other conclusion is there?"



Sure, they found 6 other planes, but how many others did they miss that were in (or out of) the search area, including perhaps Fosset's? Perhaps, being a little unfamiliar with the Bellanca, he let someone a little more so preflight it.

Perhaps he chose the plane for other characteristics than it being easy to dismantle:

Fossett was on a pleasure flight when he vanished and not looking for a dry lake bed to use as a surface on which to set the world land speed record as initially reported.

The Super Decathlon is a popular and highly acrobatic light plane.

http://members.tripod.com/~aerobaticman/decathlon.htm

Maybe he was just aerobatting around and augered in at an inconspicuous spot.

Maybe the insurance company is looking for a way out of paying out.

I just don't see a motive for the guy to make himself disappear.

tbm

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Paddle faster!! I hear banjo music!!

Emphasis mine. I'm sure he's been called many things over the years, but poor is probably not one of them. As much money as he is worth, the 25 million in insurance seems pitiful. I'm sure he made more than that on an annual basis.

The insurance angle is interesting, but I doubt very much if that is what happened. Something like Payne Stewart's plane might be more plausable. If there was a loss of pressure in the cockpit and he was at a high enough altitude, then he could have been unconscious for a very long, distance (and no fire when it crashed because there was no fuel), or crashed into the side of a mountain.

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Yeah; when I first saw the headline that he might be alive I got excited. I thought they found some evidence that he crashed/landed, then took off to try to find saftey.... or course, with the amount of time that's elapsed I doubt he would have survived that long anyway.

But then I read the article, and as the rest of you here can tell, it's nothing but conjecture by some bitter rescue worker and an insurance company looking to not pay out on a large claim.

The "Well they found six other planes!" argument is ignorant--you can't tell me that when those pilots went missing no one ever looked for them. They didn't find them until this investigation, so if they missed those planes (and who knows how many others are still left undiscovered), then why is it so hard to believe they couldn't find Fosset's wreck?

Though after reading that a large portion of the plane was made from cloth, I formulated another likely culprit.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

As I stated earlier, whatever you may conclude about the rest of the story and who's saying what, it is improper to equate the intensity of the search for Fossett with whatever went on when the pilots of those other six planes went missing. The search for Fossett was extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented.