Civil Air Patrol Expands Search for Steve Fossett

(MINDEN, Nev.) - The U.S. Civil Air Patrol has expanded its search for famed aviator Steve Fossett, bringing in cutting-edge technology -- the organization's ARCHER system, which stands for Airborne Real-Time Cueing Hyperspectral Enhanced Reconnaissance -- and members of the Utah and California wings to join Nevada Wing members involved in the mission.

An ARCHER-equipped Gippsland GA-8 Airvan was dispatched from the Utah Wing in the continuing search for Fossett, who was last seen about 9:00 AM Monday when he took off from the Flying M Ranch's private airstrip near Yerington, Nev., in a Citabria Super Decathalon single-engine aircraft with the tail number N240R.

During search and rescue missions, CAP can apply ARCHER using an on-board computer to take a spectral picture of a particular object, relying on light reflected from the object.

That information is then relayed, by e-mail and satellite phone using CAP's satellite-transmitted digital-imaging system, to units on the ground as they conduct their search.

A set of parameters describing the target's color and shape is programmed into the system, and through a sophisticated algorithm, the ARCHER system is able to differentiate a potential target from background clutter.

The nation's first fully operational, large-scale hyperspectral imaging system, ARCHER can identify a target using as little as 10 percent of the target's characteristics.

Also this morning, more than 60 members of CAP's California Wing -- equipped with 17 of their aircraft -- began searching about a 1,000-square-mile-area over the California state line from Bridgeport, Calif., about 80 miles south of Lake Tahoe, Nev., to Bishop, Calif., about 20 miles south of Bridgeport.

Searchers were first notified late Sept. 3rd that Fossett had left the private airstrip about 9:00 AM and was planning to return by noon in order to leave the area.

A formal search began at 6:00 PM that evening, as six CAP aircraft were launched with highly trained, well-equipped crews of three each in order to do sophisticated "grid" searches of hundreds of square miles of terrain in areas where the pilot may have been.

On Sept. 4th, searchers accumulated over 35 air hours of flying time in up to 14 aircraft, both planes and helicopters, from CAP, the Nevada Air Guard and the California Highway Patrol.

Four CAP ground search teams were activated from Lyon and Mineral counties in Nevada, as well as Nevada and Mono counties in California.

The search area included an area roughly 600 square miles long, extending from the Yerington area to Bishop, Calif., and about 200 miles wide with a western boundary following the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.