Gawker: valleywag, steve fossett

Steve Fossett's ID and belongings may have been found

Alaska Miller — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:40:00 EDT

Hikers at Mammoth Lakes, near California's Yosemite Park, have stumbled upon two FAA IDs that bear aviator Steve Fossett's name, as well as a jacket and some cash. Fossett has been listed missing since disappearing from a solo flight in September of last year. Internet users had teamed up to review satellite photos to find traces of Fossett without success. One reasonable conclusion from this: Random chance provides more effective results than sit-at-your-desk crowdsourcing. [Fox News]

International Adventurer May Have Faked His Own Death

ian spiegelman — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:54:06 EDT

Celebrated flyboy and action man Steve Fossett, who mysteriously disappeared flying over Nevada last September, really might have faked his own death, according to investigators from the U.S. military and Fossett's insurance carrier. "But now the official search spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Ryan of the US Civil Air Patrol, has told the News of the World she believes he may NOT have crashed. She said: 'Anything is possible. There are a lot of raised eyebrows— even more so now. I know very few people here, friends in law enforcement, that buy this story like the rest of the world has.'" The evidence, after the jump.

Investigations by the authorities and insurers have uncovered a string of worrying revelations including:

* SECRET MISTRESSES: Fossett cheated on his wife with TWO lovers in an amazing double life.

* BAFFLING CHOICE OF PLANE: Fossett chose a light stunt aircraft which could be easily dismantled and hidden, a type he did NOT like.

* NO EMERGENCY KIT: Despite a lifetime's experience he supposedly set off on the three-hour flight in just T-shirt and shorts with no parachute or his regular global positioning system watch.

* TAKE-OFF PUZZLE: The only witness who says he saw Fossett fly off has never been quizzed by the authorities.

* TRACKER RIDDLE: The plane was fitted with a satellite rescue beacon to pinpoint its position for rescuers but no signal was ever received.

"Risk assesssor Robert Davis, who conducted an eight-month investigation for insurers Lloyds of London, said to face a £25million payout on Fossett's death, told us: 'Steve Fossett may have been declared dead but this is one mystery that is still alive. All you have in this case is a missing man and a missing plane, no more and no less than that.'

"Lt Col Ryan—closely involved from the outset—said: 'I've been doing this search and rescue for 14 years. Fossett SHOULD have been found. It's not like we didn't have our eyes open. We found SIX other planes while we were looking for him. We're pretty good at what we do.'

"Lt Col Ryan confirmed claims that Fossett was cheating on devoted wife Peggy and suggested he might have faked his death to avoid a multi-million divorce settlement if she had ever found out." [NewsoftheWorld]

Crowdsourcing dumped in search for dead guy

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:03:23 EST

After adventurer Steve Fossett disappeared flying over the Nevada desert two months ago, Amazon.com joined the search party for his crash site by uploading satellite photographs covering 17,000 square miles. The idea was that volunteers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk service could pore over the photos and find Fossett's remains. But after 50,000 volunteers spent two months on the the effort to no avail, Amazon pulled the plug. Why?

The official Fossett search party has more faith in computer-aided image-scanning technology, Amazon told the Sydney Morning Herald. Algorithms 1, Calacanis 0. (Photo by Poldavo (Alex))