Story Published:
Oct 2, 2008 at 5:08 PM EST
Story Updated:
Oct 3, 2008 at 12:47 PM EST
Investigators in Madera County say they've found body parts among the wreckage of adventurer Steve Fossett’s plane.
The wreckage was found Wednesday night, just a couple days after a hiker stumbled upon some of Fossett’s personal belongings.
Pictures provided by the mono county search and rescue department show the remnants of Steve Fossett’s plane.
Officials say the wreckage was found 9,700 feet up on Minarets Summit in Eastern Madera County, just 90 miles from where it took off from in September of last year.
John Anderson, Madera County Sheriff: "It appeared to me looking at the pictures that it was a head on crash into the side of the mountain into a rock, the plane moved up and to an upward direction for 100 feet or so and dissenigrated."
Investigators confirmed just before 4 pm Thursday, that they have found human remains near the crash site, believed to be those of Fossett.
NTSB officials, who are on scene investigating the crash, say it could be several weeks, until they can determine what caused the plane to go down.
Mark Rosenker, NTSB Chairman: "It will take us weeks, perhaps months to have a better understanding of what happened on that mountain that day."
GPS coordinates of Fossett’s approximate crash site were provided by Preston Morrow, a hiker who on Monday, stumbled across some of Fossett’s belongings, including ID cards and cash, all found about a quarter of a mile from where the plane went down.
Preston Morrow, found Fossett’s belongings: "The laminated cards that were paper in the middle were weathered pretty bad. You could make out Steven Fossett’s name. The ID card that was plastic held pretty good."
Meanwhile, the NTSB hopes to have all of the wreckage collected by tomorrow, so it can then take it to a facility where it can be examined more closely.
Thursday, Fossett’s long-time friend and Virgin Chairman, Richard Branson had this to say about the findings.
Richard Branson, friend: "The good thing about today is we have closure, his wife now knows what has happened; his friends and relatives now know what has happened."
The NTSB says a sheriff's investigator found a 2-inch piece of bone, large enough to provide coroners with DNA.
Just hours after NTSB Chairman, Mark Rosenker said the remains were human, Madera County Sheriff John Anderson still wasn't quite sure.
Anderson: "We don't know if it's human. It certainly could be... I refuse to speculate."
For Preston Phillips’ full story, click on the video link above.
Thursday, Oct 2 at 7:04 PM joe wrote ...
so what about the body parts? the title says that there were body parts found, but the article makes no mention of it.