Minden pilots theorize after Fossett discovery

In the wake of the discovery of Steve Fossett's crash site in the Sierra south of Yosemite, pilots at the Minden-Tahoe Airport proffered their own theories of what happened to the famed millionaire aviator.

"He was doing what I do a lot of, recreational flying, where you fly low to the ground and get your jollies that way," said Minden pilot Mike Day at the Taildragger Cafe on Thursday.

Day, who has been flying light aircraft for 53 years, said Fossett probably got too close to the mountains and couldn't pull his plane up in time.

"The mountains are a nifty place to fly. There is always something to look at," he said. "But you have to mind the mountain currents and the wind. I've been in extreme turbulence where for about 40 seconds you have no control and nothing is responding. It seems like an eternity and you just hang on till you get out of it."

Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a Super Decathlon from the Flying M Ranch in Lyon County. A subsequent air search covered hundreds of square miles of Nevada's high desert and areas of California north and east of Yosemite. The search, based at the Minden-Tahoe Airport, was the largest in Nevada's history and turned up about half a dozen other wreck sites unrelated to Fossett. Searchers followed up thousands of leads ranging from phone calls to e-mails sent by people looking at online photographs.

Earlier this week, a hiker from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., found cash and identification papers strewn along a trail in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. A search party later found wreckage of what was verified as Fossett's plane on Thursday morning.

Day said he's flown in the area of the crash site. He said the scenery is alluring but dangerous: The country quickly changes shape and severe downward drafts are common.

"Fossett seemed like a highly experienced pilot, but maybe he had time in his own airplane, maybe not in a light aircraft with a 180-horsepower engine flying over 12,000-foot mountains," Day said. "The higher you go, the less power your engine has."

Day said the theory that Fossett hit a mountain is supported by the fact that the plane's emergency locator transmitter didn't work after the crash.

"If you fly directly into the side of a mountain, you're not going to get a squeak out of the ELT," he said.

However, Minden pilot S. Victor, who's been flying for 40 years, said emergency locator transmitters are supposed to withstand traumatic crashes.

"I'm amazed they didn't find him before," he said. "From what I understand so far, the ELT was not burned."

Victor said a mechanical error most likely caused the crash.

"The area is known to be windy and choppy, but Fossett had real experience in those conditions," he said. "I think maybe it was a mechanical failure."

Victor wouldn't speculate on the chances of surviving such a crash.

Day said Fossett was most likely killed on impact.

"The wreckage looks so destroyed that Fossett had to be thrown from the plane," he said. "It's really unfortunate."