Doesn't it seem a little too convenient....

[Heather in Neverland]

...this whole Steve Fossett story?

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081002/ap_on_re_us/fossett_search;_ylt=AiHJ3WY._UPmhebbjg5q8JEazJV4

 

On the one hand, you have a hiker who discovers Fossett's pilot license, some money, a sweatshirt, etc. not that far from where searchers looked last year (another article said about 90 miles away which isn't all that far when they said they searched a 20,000 square mile area).

 

The license and money are ever-so-gently tattered. Yet the article states that the plane hit a mountain head on and the fuselage disintegrated on impact. And, of course, there are no human remains (which could be attributed to the fuselage disintegrating or animals, etc).

 

Not one single tooth survives but his license makes it out with just a tiny blemish?

 

Have I been reading too many conspiracy-theory type things or does this seem fishy?

[Robin Hood]

His wife had him declared a full 9 years before the norm.

[Miss Marple]

I'm so happy someone else is thinking this, because I've been telling myself that I'm too suspicious of everything! It will be interesting to watch this unfold...

[Chris in VA]

If it's a desert region, maybe it preserves things? I don't know--I'll bet coyotes and other critters are pretty thorough. Poor guy. I always liked his spirit.

[Renee in NC]

His wife had him declared a full 9 years before the norm.

 

What would the motive have been for him to be declared dead?

[Miss Marple]

Money, remarriage....

[LizzyBee]

What would the motive have been for him to be declared dead?

 

Did he have minor children? If so, they and their caretaker would have been eligible for social security benefits if he is deceased.

[Renee in NC]

Did he have minor children? If so, they and their caretaker would have been eligible for social security benefits if he is deceased.

 

I guess I was under the impression he was wealthy already?

[cathmom]

He is/was wealthy and I think you mean 9 months.:)

[Chika]

and I think you mean 9 months.:)

 

Nine years "before the norm" is what was mentioned .... that's my thought, too, nine MONTHS is pretty quick in having a missing someone declared dead.

[Heather in Neverland]

And I read a while back that his wife did not want them to continue the search. She just wanted to put it to rest. Sheesh, it wasn't even a year yet, and she already gave up?

 

And another thing, isn't it strange that of all things to survive a plane crash where almost the entire plane disintegrates on impact JUST HAPPENS to be his pilot license? You know, like so there's NO DOUBT that he died in the crash?

 

This guy was sort of an adrenaline junkie, climbing mountains, racing in the iditarod...how much of a thrill would it be to fake your own death and get away with it?

 

I really gotta stop watching TV. :glare:

[jmgconner]

It does sound a little too much, doesn't it?

 

It's pretty sad. I was part of a team that would review satellite images looking for anything that could possibly be a crashed plane. It just seemed strange that he could so thoroughly disappear and we couldn't find a trace of him. And now, an intact license?

[3lilreds in NC]

On the one hand, I agree - it seems a little too convenient.

 

On the other hand, wacky things happen all the time in accidents.

 

I don't know what to think.

[TraceyS/FL]

And I read a while back that his wife did not want them to continue the search. She just wanted to put it to rest. Sheesh, it wasn't even a year yet, and she already gave up?

 

And another thing, isn't it strange that of all things to survive a plane crash where almost the entire plane disintegrates on impact JUST HAPPENS to be his pilot license? You know, like so there's NO DOUBT that he died in the crash?

 

This guy was sort of an adrenaline junkie, climbing mountains, racing in the iditarod...how much of a thrill would it be to fake your own death and get away with it?

 

I really gotta stop watching TV. :glare:

 

:iagree: I've thought something was wrong from teh get go.....

[6packofun]

Money, remarriage....

 

Him or her? lol I think I read in one article that there was speculation he was faking his own death because he owed money, but not sure...?

[shell in SC]

What I don't get is that they said the plane was found in an area that was searched in the original search. . .so how come they didn't find it then. Did you see a picture of the plane. . .it doesn't blend into the green forest/tan desert or gray mountain terrain. . .it's red and white striped. I could understand missing it if it had been a color that would blend in the landscape. . .but red???? Come on now.

 

shell

[SquirrellyMama]

I also thought this story was a bit strange. I didn't think much of it when he died. I figured the chances were good that something like this would happen since he is a risk taker.

 

Kelly

[NevadaRabbit]

Not sure about conspiracies, but I will say this: the region where the plane was found is some of the most rugged, remote, inaccessible terrain I have ever seen. It is not far from here (we could be in Mammoth Lakes in just over 3 hours) and it would be impossible to scour every corner of that area in a search. Not trying to defend anyone, just pointing out the very very wild-ness of the area.

[Heather in Neverland]

What I don't get is that they said the plane was found in an area that was searched in the original search. . .so how come they didn't find it then. Did you see a picture of the plane. . .it doesn't blend into the green forest/tan desert or gray mountain terrain. . .it's red and white striped. I could understand missing it if it had been a color that would blend in the landscape. . .but red???? Come on now.

 

shell

 

can you link me to a pic of the wreckage? I can't find one.

[TraceyS/FL]

The Foxnews.com article had them.

 

I agree.... it looked hard to miss. And i'm not sure how a piece of sweatshirt and the license could survive if that is the rest of the plane.....

[dawn of ns]

Nine years "before the norm" is what was mentioned .... that's my thought, too, nine MONTHS is pretty quick in having a missing someone declared dead.

 

Not when it's so obvious what happened. When a boat sinks and the bodies aren't recovered they don't wait years before declaring a person dead.

 

And another thing, isn't it strange that of all things to survive a plane crash where almost the entire plane disintegrates on impact JUST HAPPENS to be his pilot license? You know, like so there's NO DOUBT that he died in the crash?

 

This happens a lot. A plane disintegrates (not disapears but it shattered into tiny pieces) because of it's mass and the speed of impact. But small things, like documents and flexible things, like clothes, often don't. It's not suspicious, it's just physics. :D We had Swissair 111 go down off our coast and it was much the same. The plane was in millions of pieces but wallets, luggage, clothing...a lot of it was found intact.

 

It's the small stuff that they would absolutely expect to find to intact.

[bettyandbob]

I might be wrong, but I think ya'll are reading too much into this.

 

The area is incredibly rugged. They were searching a huge area. It's not like one of searches were they get police academy cadets to walk side by side in an area a square mile or smaller. While they search an area close by last spring they did not search it really closely because they did not believe this would be most likely location of the crash.

 

When the hiker's discovery was first announced, before they found the wreckage some people familiar with search in the area said they did not expect to find a body. They said typically if it takes more than 3 days bodies have disappeared--taken by animals. They would, in fact explain why the hiker found the wallet, but did not initially see all the wreckage. If animals were dragging things away from the wreck at different times, the wallet could have dropped out of clothing that was dragged.

 

Today, I read that the weather was really, really bad over that region the day Fosset disappeared.

 

Finally, why declare him dead. His wife made this move after a search for several weeks last fall and a search this spring. Her husband was a huge risk taker. You don't know that they didn't discuss this happening. She doesn't have to tell us about those kind of discussions. The thing is when you are that rich, most of your wealth is not in your spouse's name or even held jointly. So when you disappear, your spouse cannot access the money at all. When there are that many assets, they have to be managed. You cannot just let them sit. Again, we do not know what this couple discussed in private, you don't know that Fossett might have wanted her to do that so that the assets could have managed properly for her use or some project he wanted pursued. Most of us on this board do not have this kind of money so we just can't related. We don't have assets all over the world. Our spouses don't have so many investments that we don't know about 70% of them. For most of us the assets are the bank account, car and house (with a mortgage) held jointly and a retirement account. We don't know about wealth management, so the need to do it is not something we can relate to.

 

I may be wrong. But I still think the facts currently known make this a very reasonable story.

 

BTW, do you know what you have to do to access you dh's retirment fund if he dies. You should look into it. My neighbor had a real hard time with her dh's state teacher's pension when he died. It's really hard to fight for money you deserately need for your 5 year old child. This is a wealth management issue like the Fossett case, just important to info that hopefully you never need.

[Ria]

...this whole Steve Fossett story?

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081002/ap_on_re_us/fossett_search;_ylt=AiHJ3WY._UPmhebbjg5q8JEazJV4

 

On the one hand, you have a hiker who discovers Fossett's pilot license, some money, a sweatshirt, etc. not that far from where searchers looked last year (another article said about 90 miles away which isn't all that far when they said they searched a 20,000 square mile area).

 

The license and money are ever-so-gently tattered. Yet the article states that the plane hit a mountain head on and the fuselage disintegrated on impact. And, of course, there are no human remains (which could be attributed to the fuselage disintegrating or animals, etc).

 

Not one single tooth survives but his license makes it out with just a tiny blemish?

 

Have I been reading too many conspiracy-theory type things or does this seem fishy?

 

Um...yeah...too many conspiracy theories, lol. The guy disappeard while flying an experimental aircraft over unihabited rugged terrain with no real flight plan. Searchers did the best they could, but heck, searching costs money, and when a little plane crashes there's not much left. Evidently there are human remains. Paper and a sweatshirt will last a lot longer than dead flesh anyway.

 

Ria

[dawn of ns]

It does sound a little too much, doesn't it?

 

It's pretty sad. I was part of a team that would review satellite images looking for anything that could possibly be a crashed plane. It just seemed strange that he could so thoroughly disappear and we couldn't find a trace of him. And now, an intact license?

 

I searched for him too. There were an immense number of images to sort through and we were all amateurs looking for a plane - many of us could have looked at the very spot he crashed and not recognized it because it wasn't a plane, it was wreckage.

[TraceyS/FL]

Now the NTSB is saying they found enough body parts to have a DNA ID.

[dawn of ns]

The Foxnews.com article had them.

 

I agree.... it looked hard to miss. And i'm not sure how a piece of sweatshirt and the license could survive if that is the rest of the plane.....

 

It always looks obvious with hidesight.

 

There's nothing out of the ordinary in this. Searches are not easy and don't guarantee results even when dealing with the best conditions and best terrain.

[Robin Hood]

What would the motive have been for him to be declared dead?

 

This incident happened about 50 miles away from us so there was a lot of activity in our area for quite some time along with numerous updates and letters to the editor in our paper. The article in todays paper made mention of that fact and also the same thing the OP mentioned, but really downplayed that. I just wondered what her hurry was and was a little surprised to find that 10 years is the norm for something like that. The paper played that up and I curious, but it gave no reason.

[Robin Hood]

I might be wrong, but I think ya'll are reading too much into this. .

 

My dh would agree with you. He said the wreckage has been found and identified today.

[cathmom]

So it is years??? How can you wait 10 years to declare someone dead? I can see maybe if they just disappeared, but if you know their plane crashed, I would think you could speed it up!

[Heather in Neverland]

I am actually glad to hear they found some remains. OK, that sounds weird but you know what I mean. I hope DNA proves it to be Fossett so I can go back to trusting in the goodness of others. :D

[Robin Hood]

What I don't get is that they said the plane was found in an area that was searched in the original search. . .so how come they didn't find it then. Did you see a picture of the plane. . .it doesn't blend into the green forest/tan desert or gray mountain terrain. . .it's red and white striped. I could understand missing it if it had been a color that would blend in the landscape. . .but red???? Come on now.

 

shell

 

These things happen frequently around here. Dh has been on Civil Air Patrol searches in those mountains on many occasions and the wreckage is very difficult to find. Very often hikers are the ones that find the missing.

[StaceyinLA]

And/or what he does? I have NO idea.

[Kris]

And I read a while back that his wife did not want them to continue the search. She just wanted to put it to rest. Sheesh, it wasn't even a year yet, and she already gave up?

 

I didn't follow the story much more than a few blips, i.e., I knew he was missing and where. A search like that is expensive and dangerous. I would imagine that this was quite a difficult decision for her to make. It's very possible she thought it would be selfish to continue and perhaps risk serious injury or death to the searchers.

 

As for declaring him dead after nine months, that's really not that unusual or that quick in circumstances such as these. The sad reality is that the man had responsibilities that had to be assumed by others -- life goes on. In most circumstances, that can't be done unless the person *is* declared dead. You can't just put business on hold for ten years waiting for the clock to run out.

[Chika]

Not when it's so obvious what happened. When a boat sinks and the bodies aren't recovered they don't wait years before declaring a person dead.

 

So it is years??? How can you wait 10 years to declare someone dead? I can see maybe if they just disappeared, but if you know their plane crashed, I would think you could speed it up!

 

That's the thing -- no one did know *for sure* that there had been a crash until the plane was found yesterday. It was speculation until then. So that's where the "conspiracy theory" kicked in -- was [someone] faking his death? That's why I was sort of surprised they declared him dead so quickly -- no crash site found. But again, now that it HAS been found and the ID will probably come in as it being him -- well, the conspiracy speculation can be laid to rest. As can he.

[Chika]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett