Fossett crash report provides questions, not answers
Without attempting to provide a probable cause for the light aircraft accident in which aviation adventurer Steve Fossett died on 3 September 2007, the US National Transportation Safety Board has released a factual report about the crash. This summarises the NTSB's assessment of the wreckage, and information provided by other pilots in the area at the time.
The agency does not try to provide a theory as to why Fossett's remains and some of his personal effects had been found "about 0.5 mile" (0.8km) from the aircraft wreckage.
Despite an extensive search for Fossett, which started when the aircraft, a single-engined piston-powered Bellanca Super Decathlon two-seater, was only about 30min late for its expected return to base, evidence of the crash location was not discovered for more than a year. A hiker near Minaret Summit in the Sierra Nevada Mountains found Fosset's personal effects on 1 October 2007, sparking a renewed search in the area that led to the discovery of the aircraft wreckage. Skeletal remains, determined through DNA analysis to be Fossett's, were found, but not near the aircraft wreckage. They were 0.8km away near where his personal possessions had been discovered.
Fossett was alone in the aircraft, flying it from the forward of its two tandem seats. His wife told the NTSB that his flight was just "a Sunday drive", and the chief pilot of the Flying M Ranch airfield from which the aircraft took off said Fossett gave no indication that he intended to use the type's aerobatic capabilities, but said that he would fly "south to highway 395", which follows a north-south line paralleling the Sierra Nevada range on its eastern side. The accident site was about 120km (65nm) south of the airfield.
Analysis of the Super Decathlon's wreckage showed that the engine, a normally aspirated four-cylinder Lycoming AEIO-360-H1A, was developing power at impact with the mountain, which it hit at a level about 300ft (90m) below a 13,000ft ridge. The impact smashed the aircraft badly and caused an extensive fire, but all the control surfaces were present at the site. The emergency locator beacon was destroyed by the impact. Both seats have a five-point aerobatic harness and a three-point normal seat belt, but although all the components of both of these for the forward seat were found, neither was fastened.
Weather information from local reporting points and pilots flying in the area indicates that the visibility was excellent with no cloud. One pilot in the area described it as "perfect flying weather". Wind in the mountains at the accident level is estimated to have been south to southwesterly at between 30kt and 50kt.
The factual report observes that if there was a downdraft over the ridge near the crash site it was likely to have been flowing at, or in excess of, 300ft/min vertical speed, which would have at least equalled - and possibly exceeded - the Bellanca's maximum power climb rate at that altitude and ambient temperature.
