Plane carrying Fossett missing

MINDEN, Nev. -- Steve Fossett doesn't give up easily. It took him four tries to swim across the English Channel, and six to fulfill his dream of becoming the first person to fly around the world solo in a hot-air balloon.

His friends pointed to that persistence as a reason for optimism Tuesday, as searchers in aircraft covered broad swaths of western Nevada searching for the adventurer and his plane, last seen Monday morning.

"Steve is a tough old boot," said Sir Richard Branson, the British billionaire who has helped finance many of Fossett's adventures. "I suspect he is waiting by his plane right now for someone to pick him up."

Branson said in a statement that Fossett had been scouting for a suitable dry lake bed to make an attempt at breaking the land speed record. That would add the list of dozens of marks Fossett claims for speed or distance in balloons, airplanes, gliders, sailboats -- even cross-country skis and an airship.

Fossett has survived a number of close calls, including a 29,000-foot plunge into the Coral Sea after his balloon ripped during a storm in 1998. He was eventually rescued by a schooner.

The 63-year-old took off alone at 8:45 a.m. Monday from an airstrip at hotel magnate Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, about 70 miles southeast of Reno. A friend reported him missing when he didn't return, authorities said.

Searchers had little to go on because he apparently didn't file a flight plan. "They are working on some leads, but they don't know where he is right now," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

Thirteen aircraft were searching for Fossett in addition to ground crews, said Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan of the Civil Air Patrol. The teams were conducting grid searches over 7,500 square miles -- an area larger than Connecticut -- but were concentrating on an area of 600 square miles.

"It is a very large haystack, and an airplane is a very small needle, no doubt about it," Ryan said during a late afternoon news conference.

The search area is varied, ranging from high desert terrain with dry lake beds and sage brush, but also some rugged mountain peaks, she said. Gusty winds were hampering the search and could end up suspending the air search effort, Ryan said.

Ryan said it is not uncommon when flying out of a remote, private airstrip to do so without filing a flight plan. She said Fossett had "full radio capability" but did not make radio contact with anyone at the ranch after his takeoff.

Fossett was flying solo and was carrying four full tanks of gas on board, Branson said.

"The ranch he took off from covers a huge area, and Steve has had far tougher challenges to overcome in the past. Based on his track record, I feel confident we'll get some good news soon."

John Kugler, a longtime friend who taught Fossett ballooning, described Hilton's ranch as a place where aviation enthusiasts gather for weekends of good food and flying.

Kugler said that Fossett is a careful, capable flyer and that his aircraft is a "safe plane," and he held out hope Fossett would be found alive.

"They're going to find him on a mountainside," Kugler said. "He's going to be hungry and want some good food."

Ryan described Fossett's plane as a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathalon, blue and white with orange stripes and blue sunburst designs on the wings. The two-seat tandem "tail dragger" is capable of aerobatic maneuvers, Ryan said.

FAA records show the registered owner is Flying M Hunting Club Inc. of Yerington, Nev. The agency certified it Aug. 21, 1980.

A telephone message left for a Peggy Fossett in Beaver Creek, Colo., where Steve Fossett lives, was not immediately returned. A woman who answered the telephone at Flying M Ranch on Tuesday confirmed Fossett took off from there Monday but declined to comment further or to identify herself.

Fossett has an application pending before the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a permit to attempt the land-speed record on federal land in north-central Nevada's Eureka County, more than 150 miles away, BLM officials said Tuesday.

Chris Worthington, a spokesman for the BLM in Battle Mountain, Nev., said he spoke with Fossett as recently as last week. He was unaware of any other sites Fossett may have been considering.

Fossett, a Stanford University graduate with a master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, went to Chicago to work in the securities business and ultimately founded his own firm, Marathon Securities.

In 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. In two weeks, his balloon flew 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere.

The record came after five previous attempts -- some of them spectacular and frightening failures. But in a 1997 interview -- after his second around-the-world balloon attempt ended in India -- Fossett said the most dangerous thing he ever did was fall off his bicycle in Chicago without a helmet on.

"I'm doing these things for personal accomplishment, not the thrills," he said in Stanford University's alumni magazine. "I don't do these things because I have a death wish."

In March 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling. He and a co-pilot also claim to have set a world glider altitude record of 50,671 feet during a flight in August 2006 over the Andes Mountains.

Fossett also has climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed 47th in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992, participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996 and broke the round-the-world sailing record by six days in 2004.

In 1995, Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Fossett was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July. He told a crowd gathered at the Dayton Convention Center in Ohio that he would continue flying.

"I'm hoping you didn't give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done," Fossett said.

Fossett said he planned to go to Argentina in November in an effort to break a glider record.

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Associated Press writers Scott Sonner in Reno, John Milburn in Topeka, Kan., Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Raphael G. Satter in London and Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.