September, 2007 One of America's richest men went missing on a solo flight in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada Steve Fossett was a world-famous pilot who cheated death on dozens of record-breaking flights How could he just vanish off the face of the Earth? 'There were rumors he was in Argentina, There were rumors that he had faked his death.' 'A lot of people, especially wealthy people, sometimes they just kinda- check out. 'I'm walkin' away from this." Fossett, who'd made the first solo balloon flight around the world, had disappeared in America's very own Bermuda Triangle An area of Nevada and California, in which more than 2000 planes have crashed in the last 50 years Some call it the 'Nevada Triangle' 'It's just something that's been passed around by pilots in this area for decades; that, y'know, in the old days planes would go missing, nobody ever found the airplane.' 'They were talking about hundreds, and hundreds of planes that had vanished into the, uh- 'Nevada Triangle', 'Devil's Triangle of Nevada'.' The Nevada Triangle is a mysterious area, with an unforgiving landscape of high mountain and desert Inside its borders is Area 51; a top-secret military base, famous for rumors of UFO sightings, and unsolved plane crashes Only by unlocking these mysteries, to try and find out what happened to Steve Fossett, can we learn why so many planes crash, or disappear in the Nevada Triangle Yerington, Nevada 8:45am, Monday, the 3rd of September, 2007 Record-breaking pilot Steve Fossett took off on a solo flight in a 2-man stunt plane A weekend guest at a ranch 60 miles from Reno, he didn't tell his hosts where he was going Simply saying he'd 'be back in a few hours.' After 3 hours his worried friends declared him missing They triggered the biggest peace-time search and rescue operation in US history It was led by the Nevada wing of the US Air Force's Civil Air Patrol 'There was no flight plan file, the only information we had was that, y'know, he was basically takin' off on a, uh- Sunday joy ride, and flying 395 corridor.' Fossett's reputation for fearless flying kept his rescuers optimistic 'This man can be found alive.' 'Any sighting, or anything that seems to be- appears to be accurate with the information known about the aircraft, we are following up with it, come in.' Fossett had taken off from this desert air strip, the Flying M Ranch owned by his friend, billionaire hotelier, Baron Hilton The potential search area was huge; 8 times the size of Britain 'He had about 4 hours of fuel on-board that aircraft, and it flies at about 120 miles an hour So, uh, that means that in 4 hours he could cover 480 miles, 500 miles and then to 3.14(r)^2 it's 3/4 of a million miles, so unless we have some very good clues as to what direction, what piece of that, there's no way that we could search 750000 square miles.' The searchers were looking for a pilot who, at the age of 63, had amassed 115 world records 'There's a large number of aviation records, but there are 3, uh, what are called 'absolute' world records One of them is for distance, one for them for duration, and one for altitude, and, uh, I set 2 of them today.' Terry Delore flew with Fossett for 5 years Together they set more than 10 world records for gliding The last one just weeks before Fossett disappeared 'He was interested in what he calls the 'ultimate challenges', 'ultimate achievements', things that nobody's ever done before Do something further, or faster, or longer, or, uh, whatever.' Fossett was a driven man, he saw adversity as a challenge Surely he couldn't have lost his life on a 2 hour pleasure flight? 'He trained himself to be able to put up with all a variety of conditions that nature would throw at him, because all he was looking at was the goal of the end, y'know, to finish his challenges. To get the records, to, uh- To get where he wanted to go.' Fossett had been a risk-taker all his life It had made his fortune By the time he was in his 40s he'd made, lost, and made again millions on the Chicago stock exchange 'I've set a goal, which is at the very limit of this aircraft. If I've miscalculated to any extent, I will be unable to finish this flight.' But had Fossett miscalculated that Sunday morning? The Sierra Nevada mountain range runs down the Western coast of the United States, and straddles the Border of California and Nevada The air strip he'd taken off from in Yarington is in the middle of what has become known as the Nevada Triangle It has seen more than 2000 plane crashes over the last 50 years 'Since the 2nd World War there've been, uh, hundreds, and hundreds of planes that've crashed, uh, in the desert, and in the Sierra Nevada, so it is a treacherous place for aircraft.' Frank Mullen is a newspaper journalist He started to plot out the crash sites 'The map that I put together of 129 crashes, uh, are only crash sites where there's still debris on the ground There's been actually more hundreds, and hundreds of crash sites around the state.' The area covers almost 25000 square miles Half the size of England There are many theories why so many planes go missing here From unusual atmospheric effects, to alien intervention In the search for Steve Fossett, investigators will explore each one in the hope of finding him 'I gotta say the most critical part of a search is probably about the first 24 hours It's the best possibility for someone that's injured in a crash- survivable crash, to still be found alive your best options at being able to get help to this person, or these people as fast as you can.' But Fossett wasn't found on the first day, or the second 'I would say after about 3 days we are pretty confident that we're searching for wreckage, rather than an individual who needs to be rescued, unfortunately, uh- The temperatures go down pretty low at night, even in the summer times here, and if a person is injured, they're not gonna survive very long usually.' Fossett was not only an adventurer in the skies, he sailed oceans, and made 2 attempts on Everest 'When you say the name 'Steve Fosset', then that changes your whole perspective, and if anyone was going to survive the thing, and come walking out- maybe broken and battered, but still alive, we really thought it would be him.' The rescuers didn't want to give up hope, because if anyone could beat the Nevada Triangle, it would be Steve Fossett That is, if he was still in the Triangle The mountains of the Sierra Nevada stretch for nearly 400 miles along the border of California and Nevada In September, 2007, they were the focus of a massive search and rescue operation Steve Fossett, the record-breaking aviator, had not been seen for 2 days since taking off on a pleasure flight As search planes combed the peaks and valleys, they reportedly spotted dozens of plane wrecks that had laid undisturbed for years 'The planes that went in, down in these rocks here, were just small pieces that were found by hunters a good year after it went in, and uh, it was- just not visible from the air.' It wasn't news to the locals, but the world was discovering this region of the Sierra Nevada was an aviation graveyard 'Initially the TV cable networks were all saying there were hundreds of planes that had flown into Nevada, and, uh, were never seen again. Just vanishing into thin air, and, uh- This turned into talk of the Nevada Triangle on CNN and the other TV networks Bermuda Triangle located in the desert of Nevada, where people just vanish More than 2000 planes have crashed in the Nevada Triangle since 1962 In the Southeastern corner, at the bottom of the triangle, is Area 51, a top-secret military testing site For years it has been associated with UFO sightings, alien encounters, and unexplained crashes 'When it comes to someone vanishing, and you look at what else is in the area, and you see the proliferation of military bases, and secret technologies and so forth, it's not a hard leap of faith to say 'gee maybe these other things are involved in this mysterious disappearance?'' Area 51 was within Fossett's flight range 'There are rumors that Steve Fossett got into Area 51, or that there was some incident there Somebody who would really get into the airspace of Area 51 would definitely be, uhm, forced down if they really entered the airspace.' The idea that Fossett was forced down here is not so far-fetched to say Jorge Arnue has spent years studying satellite photographs, and investigating unexplained sightings, crashes, and what actually goes on in Area 51 'These 3 f-16s here seem to be pretty much on standby, just in case an intrusion in the airspace would happen.'
