Fossett declared dead

Missing millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett was declared legally dead Friday by a Chicago court five months after the airplane he was flying went missing over Nevada, U.S. media reported. His wife, Peggy Fossett, had asked Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois to make the declaration in November. Her petition for a judicial finding of his death said investigators had concluded that Fossett's airplane was destroyed in a fatal accident. Fossett, a 63-year-old holder of several aviation and sailing records, vanished Sept. 3 with his airplane after taking off from a private airstrip in western Nevada. An exhaustive search failed to find any wreckage.