October 02, 2008

Federal investigators say they found body parts amid the wreckage of missing adventurer Steve Fossett's airplane in the mountains of eastern California. The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, said Thursday that searchers found enough at the crash site of Fossett's plane to provide coroners with DNA.

National Transportation Safety Board acting Chairman Mark Rosenker won't say exactly what searchers found. But he says it was not surprising how little they uncovered, considering how long it had been since the crash. Madera County Sheriff John Anderson told reporters earlier Thursday that searchers "found enough wreckage to determine that it was in fact the aircraft" Fossett was flying solo when he disappeared last September.

Anderson said that it appears that Fossett plowed head-on into a mountainside. "The crash looked to be so severe that I doubt if someone would have walked away from it," said the sheriff during a Thursday news conference before the body parts were found. The engine was lying about 300 feet from the wings and the fuselage, which disintegrated on impact.

"It was a hard-impact crash, and he would've died instantly," said Jeff Page, emergency management coordinator for Lyon County, Nev., who assisted the search. Fossett's mysterious disappearance prompted a massive search that covered 20,000 square miles — and sparked rumors that he faked his own death because he was buried in debt.