07-27-2008, 01:09 AM
EXCLUSIVE by Douglas Wight & Graeme Massie
ROUND-THE-WORLD flying ace Steve Fossett may have FAKED his own death in the mystery plane crash that left NO WRECKAGE and NO BODY.
This is the sensational theory of a US air force officer on the month-long search for Fossett AND crack insurance investigators who are convinced this legend of the skies may still be ALIVE.
The globally accepted story is that 63-year-old adventurer Fossettââ¬âfriend of Virgin tycoon Richard Branson and the first man to fly non-stop round the earth in a hot air balloonââ¬âdied last September 3 when his final flight in a light plane over the Nevada desert went tragically wrong.
But now the official search spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Ryan of the US Civil Air Patrol, has told the News of the World she believes he may NOT have crashed.
She said: "Anything is possible. There are a lot of raised eyebrowsââ¬â even more so now. I know very few people here, friends in law enforcement, that buy this story like the rest of the world has."
Investigations by the authorities and insurers have uncovered a string of worrying revelations including:
SECRET MISTRESSES: Fossett cheated on his wife with TWO lovers in an amazing double life.
BAFFLING CHOICE OF PLANE: Fossett chose a light stunt aircraft which could be easily dismantled and hidden, a type he did NOT like.
NO EMERGENCY KIT: Despite a lifetime's experience he supposedly set off on the three-hour flight in just T-shirt and shorts with no parachute or his regular global positioning system watch.
TAKE-OFF PUZZLE: The only witness who says he saw Fossett fly off has never been quizzed by the authorities.
TRACKER RIDDLE: The plane was fitted with a satellite rescue beacon to pinpoint its position for rescuers but no signal was ever received.
Clues
Risk assesssor Robert Davis, who conducted an eight-month investigation for insurers Lloyds of London, said to face a ã25million payout on Fossett's death, told us: "Steve Fossett may have been declared dead but this is one mystery that is still alive.
"All you have in this case is a missing man and a missing plane, no more and no less than that."
Fossett's disappearance sparked the biggest search in American history, with the Civil Air Patrol's Black Hawks, fitted with infra-red technology, joined by over 30 private planes and internet sleuths scanning the Nevada desert on Google Earth looking for clues.
But after a month the manhunt was called off with not even the smallest piece of wreckage found.
Lt Col Ryanââ¬âclosely involved from the outsetââ¬âsaid: "I've been doing this search and rescue for 14 years. Fossett SHOULD have been found.
"It's not like we didn't have our eyes open. We found SIX other planes while we were looking for him. We're pretty good at what we do."
Lt Col Ryan confirmed claims that Fossett was cheating on devoted wife Peggy and suggested he might have faked his death to avoid a multi-million divorce settlement if she had ever found out.
And she hinted that he might have been in money trouble, losing out on investments in troubled financial institutions Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns.
The rescue chief also highlighted anomalies that question whether Fossett's plane ever crashed.
Only one witness actually claims the multi-millionaire took off that day. That witness, a pilot at the hotel tycoon Barron Hilton's Flying M ranch near Reno, stated Fossett asked him to prepare the plane for take-offââ¬âeven though the adventurer had NEVER allowed anyone else to do this before.
The Hilton pilot said Fossett was going to scout possible locations for a land speed record attempt.
But, again unusually, he gave no indication of his direction or route and set off carrying just one bottle of water.
The plane itself was unusual too, a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon. Insurance investigator Davis's report to Lloyds, seen by the News of the World, says the light aircraft is constructed from a steel and wood frame but actually covered in fabric, making it easy to dismantle and hide.
Twelve weeks after Fossett went missing, his devastated wife of 38 years, Peggy, declared she believed him dead. A judge legally pronounced him dead in February. But Lt Col Ryan insisted many aspects of Fossett's disappearance still don't add up.
She explained: "Think about all the things that were atypical about itââ¬âlike he goes off without his fancy watch, he leaves it at home.
"And he goes out without his emergency kit, which he supposedly never, ever did."
Lt Col Ryan revealed Hilton employed controversial mercenaries Blackwater security, used extensively in Iraq, to protect the ranch during the search.
Turmoil
She also told how a claimed low level sighting of Fossett's plane, said to have been made by a California Highway Patrol man near Mammoth Lakes about 50 miles to the south of the Flying M, has never been corroborated.
Police were unable to trace the officer. And a reported last sighting of the aircraft by a ranch hand to the west of Mount Grant has never been confirmed. Lt Col Ryan also put forward theories, raised by colleagues in US law enforcement agencies, for why Fossett might stage his own death.
She said: "His stock trading habits were legendary. Not necessarily big losses but it's one possibility.
"Then there's the divorce possibility and not wanting to share his fortune if his wife had found out."
Lloyds of London's investigator Davis, based in Shreveport, Louisiana, said the fact that Fossett was having secret affairs with at least TWO other women at the time shows his marriage was in turmoil.
He also finds it odd that the last person said to have seen Fossett alive, the Hilton pilot, has never been interviewed by the official investigating authorities.
Paul Ciolino, a private detective helping Davis, tracked down a British-born woman who claimed to have been having an affair with the adventurer for two years, right up until he vanished.
She said the fling began after a chance meeting on a commercial flight.
And she revealed how ANOTHER woman contacted her after Fossett's disappearance claiming she too was a mistress, but hoped the flyer's body was never found ââ¬â leaving him immort-alised like air legend Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, who vanished flying over the Pacific.
Assessor Davis told us: "What I've strived to find out is what happened to this man in the run-up up to his disappearance, why did he disappear?
"I spoke to reporters who were on the scene, people who were helping out with the search efforts, anyone whom I thought could shed some light on this.
"And what I discovered is that there is absolutely no proof that Steve Fossett is actually dead.
"I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a man who deals in facts, and I don't really care if he is alive or dead, it makes no difference to me.
"What I AM interested in is the truthââ¬âand a proper criminal investigation of this man's disappearance was NEVER undertaken by law enforcement or officials in the state of Nevada."
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2707_ste...sett.shtml
ROUND-THE-WORLD flying ace Steve Fossett may have FAKED his own death in the mystery plane crash that left NO WRECKAGE and NO BODY.
This is the sensational theory of a US air force officer on the month-long search for Fossett AND crack insurance investigators who are convinced this legend of the skies may still be ALIVE.
The globally accepted story is that 63-year-old adventurer Fossettââ¬âfriend of Virgin tycoon Richard Branson and the first man to fly non-stop round the earth in a hot air balloonââ¬âdied last September 3 when his final flight in a light plane over the Nevada desert went tragically wrong.
But now the official search spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Ryan of the US Civil Air Patrol, has told the News of the World she believes he may NOT have crashed.
She said: "Anything is possible. There are a lot of raised eyebrowsââ¬â even more so now. I know very few people here, friends in law enforcement, that buy this story like the rest of the world has."
Investigations by the authorities and insurers have uncovered a string of worrying revelations including:
SECRET MISTRESSES: Fossett cheated on his wife with TWO lovers in an amazing double life.
BAFFLING CHOICE OF PLANE: Fossett chose a light stunt aircraft which could be easily dismantled and hidden, a type he did NOT like.
NO EMERGENCY KIT: Despite a lifetime's experience he supposedly set off on the three-hour flight in just T-shirt and shorts with no parachute or his regular global positioning system watch.
TAKE-OFF PUZZLE: The only witness who says he saw Fossett fly off has never been quizzed by the authorities.
TRACKER RIDDLE: The plane was fitted with a satellite rescue beacon to pinpoint its position for rescuers but no signal was ever received.
Clues
Risk assesssor Robert Davis, who conducted an eight-month investigation for insurers Lloyds of London, said to face a ã25million payout on Fossett's death, told us: "Steve Fossett may have been declared dead but this is one mystery that is still alive.
"All you have in this case is a missing man and a missing plane, no more and no less than that."
Fossett's disappearance sparked the biggest search in American history, with the Civil Air Patrol's Black Hawks, fitted with infra-red technology, joined by over 30 private planes and internet sleuths scanning the Nevada desert on Google Earth looking for clues.
But after a month the manhunt was called off with not even the smallest piece of wreckage found.
Lt Col Ryanââ¬âclosely involved from the outsetââ¬âsaid: "I've been doing this search and rescue for 14 years. Fossett SHOULD have been found.
"It's not like we didn't have our eyes open. We found SIX other planes while we were looking for him. We're pretty good at what we do."
Lt Col Ryan confirmed claims that Fossett was cheating on devoted wife Peggy and suggested he might have faked his death to avoid a multi-million divorce settlement if she had ever found out.
And she hinted that he might have been in money trouble, losing out on investments in troubled financial institutions Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns.
The rescue chief also highlighted anomalies that question whether Fossett's plane ever crashed.
Only one witness actually claims the multi-millionaire took off that day. That witness, a pilot at the hotel tycoon Barron Hilton's Flying M ranch near Reno, stated Fossett asked him to prepare the plane for take-offââ¬âeven though the adventurer had NEVER allowed anyone else to do this before.
The Hilton pilot said Fossett was going to scout possible locations for a land speed record attempt.
But, again unusually, he gave no indication of his direction or route and set off carrying just one bottle of water.
The plane itself was unusual too, a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon. Insurance investigator Davis's report to Lloyds, seen by the News of the World, says the light aircraft is constructed from a steel and wood frame but actually covered in fabric, making it easy to dismantle and hide.
Twelve weeks after Fossett went missing, his devastated wife of 38 years, Peggy, declared she believed him dead. A judge legally pronounced him dead in February. But Lt Col Ryan insisted many aspects of Fossett's disappearance still don't add up.
She explained: "Think about all the things that were atypical about itââ¬âlike he goes off without his fancy watch, he leaves it at home.
"And he goes out without his emergency kit, which he supposedly never, ever did."
Lt Col Ryan revealed Hilton employed controversial mercenaries Blackwater security, used extensively in Iraq, to protect the ranch during the search.
Turmoil
She also told how a claimed low level sighting of Fossett's plane, said to have been made by a California Highway Patrol man near Mammoth Lakes about 50 miles to the south of the Flying M, has never been corroborated.
Police were unable to trace the officer. And a reported last sighting of the aircraft by a ranch hand to the west of Mount Grant has never been confirmed. Lt Col Ryan also put forward theories, raised by colleagues in US law enforcement agencies, for why Fossett might stage his own death.
She said: "His stock trading habits were legendary. Not necessarily big losses but it's one possibility.
"Then there's the divorce possibility and not wanting to share his fortune if his wife had found out."
Lloyds of London's investigator Davis, based in Shreveport, Louisiana, said the fact that Fossett was having secret affairs with at least TWO other women at the time shows his marriage was in turmoil.
He also finds it odd that the last person said to have seen Fossett alive, the Hilton pilot, has never been interviewed by the official investigating authorities.
Paul Ciolino, a private detective helping Davis, tracked down a British-born woman who claimed to have been having an affair with the adventurer for two years, right up until he vanished.
She said the fling began after a chance meeting on a commercial flight.
And she revealed how ANOTHER woman contacted her after Fossett's disappearance claiming she too was a mistress, but hoped the flyer's body was never found ââ¬â leaving him immort-alised like air legend Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, who vanished flying over the Pacific.
Assessor Davis told us: "What I've strived to find out is what happened to this man in the run-up up to his disappearance, why did he disappear?
"I spoke to reporters who were on the scene, people who were helping out with the search efforts, anyone whom I thought could shed some light on this.
"And what I discovered is that there is absolutely no proof that Steve Fossett is actually dead.
"I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a man who deals in facts, and I don't really care if he is alive or dead, it makes no difference to me.
"What I AM interested in is the truthââ¬âand a proper criminal investigation of this man's disappearance was NEVER undertaken by law enforcement or officials in the state of Nevada."
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2707_ste...sett.shtml
