No human remains at Fossett’s plane-Sheriff

A California Sheriff said on Thursday that no human remains were found at the remote plane crash site of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, but what appeared to be bones found nearby may or may not be human.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson's comment came hours after a federal official had said remains found at the site were those of a person.

But Anderson said late on Thursday: "I want to tell you equivocally we have not found any human remains at the crash site.

He said that "what appeared to be bones" were discovered nearby but didn't want to speculate whether they were human or not.

"There are no human bones that were discovered today to my knowledge. They certainly could be after an examination by a certified pathologist but I'm not willing to make that certification," he said.

Officials have said the remains found were sufficient for DNA testing.

Disappeared more than a year ago

The wreckage of Fossett's plane was found more than a year after the disappearance of the millionaire adventurer in the rugged Sierra Nevada.

Fossett, the 63-year-old thrill-seeker, vanished on a solo flight 13 months ago. The mangled debris of his single-engine plane was spotted from the air late on Wednesday near the town of Mammoth Lakes. It was identified by its tail number.

Investigators said the plane had slammed straight into a mountainside.

Rescuers were on Thursday searching an amid a field of debris that stretched 400 feet (122 meters) long and 150 feet (46 meters) wide in a steep section of the mountain range, the NTSB said.

An aerial search late on Wednesday spotted what appeared to be wreckage in the Inyo National Forest near Mammoth Lakes and ground crews confirmed the tail number matched Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane.

Speaking earlier on Thursday, federal investigators said they had found body parts amid the wreckage of the plane but Marke Rosenker, the acting chairman of the NTSB said they found very little remains.

"Given the length of time that the wreckage has been there, it is not surprising to come into a debris field and not find a lot of human remains," he said.

He said then, very little had been found and would not describe what remains had been found.

Some personal effects also were found at the crash site, but investigators would not describe them in any detail.

Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away.

The search began after a hiker stumbled upon three identification cards and 1005 US dollars in cash apparently belonging to Fossett in the area.

The plane wreckage was found about a quarter-mile from where hiker Preston Morrow made his discovery on Monday.

The IDs provided the first possible clue about Fossett's whereabouts since he disappeared on 3 September 2007, after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

The plane crashed about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of the ranch.

Mammoth Lakes had not been considered a likely place to find Fossett's plane.

The most intense searching was concentrated north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.

Still, the steep, rugged area around the wreckage site had been flown over 19 times by the California Civil Air Patrol during the initial search, Anderson said.

A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20-thousand square miles.