Aviation Adventurer Is Missing

Search parties on the lookout for America's Richard Branson

By Caroline Zimmerman, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 4, 2007 4:32 PM CDT

Copied

Aviation Adventurer Is Missing — Steve Fossett, right, is kissed by Richard Branson after landing safely after declaring an emergency following a loss of electrical power at Bournemouth, England, in this Feb 11, 2006, file photo. A small plane carrying Fossett has been missing since Monday night, federal officials said Tuesday, Sept.... (Associated Press)

Quixotic aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett, the first person to make it around the world in a balloon, was missing today when his plane disappeared over western Nevada. A search is on for his single-engine Bellanca, but the millionaire entrepreneur didn't file a flight plan, the AP reports.

"They don't know exactly where he was going," said one trooper. Fossett, 63, was also the first person to circle the globe in a plane without refueling in 2005. "I'm hoping you didn't give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done," Fossett said upon his induction into the aviation hall of fame in July. (More Steve Fossett stories.)

Report an error