Steve Fossett missing and massive search underway

by Sail-World on 5 Sep 2007 World aviation and sailing record-holder Steve Fossett is missing.

63 year old Fossett took off from a private air strip south of Yerington, Nevada on Monday, in a single engine Citabria Super Decathlon plane for a sight seeing trip. He had enough fuel for at least four hours of flight, but did not return as scheduled. An extensive air search has been underway according to the Civil Air Patrol.

Civil Air Patrol spokesperson Major Cynthia Ryan has told CNN that authorities have been searching hundreds of miles of rugged terrain in western Nevada since Tuesday morning. Six search aircraft with three-man crews are taking part in the search.

In 2004, two weeks after returning from his successful Round The World Sailing world record at the helm of his 125' maxi-catamaran Cheyenne, Fossett announced he has decided to pull back from front line international speed sailing to focus on aviation.

'The round the world record has fulfilled my highest ambition in sailing’ admitted Fossett 'and this just seems like the right time to stop.'

His focused and committed approach has made him the greatest record-setter in the history of speed sailing with over two dozen total world and race records set.

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When he retired from speed sailing, thirteen of the 22 records listed as 'outright' in the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) record book (http://www.sailspeedrecords.com) were held by Fossett - including the amazing new Round The World at 58 days 9 hours on the 125' maxi-cat Cheyenne - and the 2001 New York - UK Trans Atlantic rocket ride of 4 days 17 hours (aboard the same boat, then known as PlayStation).

‘It has been an exciting - and very fulfilling - 11 years. In the past we've defended our records by re-taking four of them when broken: the 24 Hours (twice), Round Britain and Ireland, and Isle of Wight - but I don't want to make a program of that. My mind is on aviation projects right now. '

Upon his retirement Fossett was the holder of 13 official Outright World Sailing Records plus two Singlehanded records and was the holder of nine major distance race records.

He set records in four boats:

PlayStation 1998-2000 105'; PlayStation/Cheyenne 2001-2004 125' catamaran

Lakota 60' trimaran and Stars & Stripes 60' catamaran

Fossett, set the record for the first solo, non-stop, non-refueled airplane trip around the world, in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer in 2005 and a year later he broke the world's flight distance record, traveling more than 26,000 miles in 76 hours in the same aircraft.