When fate takes a hand

On Sept. 3, 2007, Steve Fossett flew into history when he took off from an obscure private airfield and was never heard from again.

Fossett's disappearance sparked the largest land search in Nevada history and turned up nothing. Members of the media flocked to Minden for the first week of the search.

The questions were pretty similar, "Would you do this for anyone?" "Is there any chance Fossett will be found alive?" "Did Fossett have any reason to disappear?"

Even with those questions asked and answered, conspiracy theories rose up around the aviator's disappearance like thunderheads over the Sierra.

"With all the resources dedicated to finding Fossett, how could he not have been found?" the reasoning went. That led to the conclusion that either the searchers weren't looking very hard or that Fossett had pulled a disappearing act.

Nearly 13 months to the day later, a hiker in a remote part of the Sierra Nevada stumbled across Fossett's identification.

That was the clue that led to the discovery of Fossett's aircraft and some bone fragments.

With the facts that have come in, it is not a surprise to us that Fossett wasn't found on first or even the 20th pass.

The lesson of Fossett's life is that with the resources and preparation, a person can do almost anything.

However, the line between adventure and misadventure is a fine one, and can be crossed at any time no matter what skills someone possesses.