Conspiracy theories take new twist | The Times obituary | Picture special

Search teams looking for the remains of the adventurer Steve Fossett, who disappeared while out flying a year ago, have found the wreckage of his aircraft in the California mountains

The day after a local ski shop manager handed police three ID cards bearing Fossett's name that he found on a hike through the Inyo National Forest, the National Transport Safety Board confirmed today that wreckage sighted nearby was that of his plane.

The NTSB said the small airplane "appears to be the aircraft piloted by Steve Fossett".

Fossett, whose record-breaking attempts were often backed by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, has not been seen since he took off from an airstrip at an isolated ranch in the Nevada desert on September 3 last year in a small Bellanca airplane.

The wreckage was located about 10,000 feet (3,200 meters) up the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes. The NTSB said it has sent an investigator to the accident site.

The identification cards - the first concrete clue in the hunt for the missing adventurer - suggested that Fossett fell to earth closer to civilisation, and in a different direction, than search and rescue workers had assumed.

Mammoth Lakes is around 90 miles south of hotel magnate Barron Hilton’s Flying M Ranch which Fossett, 63, took off from.

Search teams had already flown over Mammoth Lakes but it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane. Instead the search - which covered 20,000 square miles - was concentrated to the north of the town, based on sightings of Mr Fossett’s plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had.

The hunt has investigated numerous sightings of wreckage, but so far all have proved to be unrelated to Fossett's disappearance.

While the latest reported sighting was investigated, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was trying to determine whether the ID cards found by hiker Preston Morrow are authentic.

Mr Morrow said he found an FAA identity card, a pilot’s licence, a third ID and $1,000 in cash but saw no sign of a plane or of any human remains. He handed the items to police yesterday after unsuccessful attempts to contact Fossett’s family.

Mr Morrow, 43, who works in a Mammoth Lakes sporting goods store, said he did not know who Mr Fossett was initially, but that a co-worker recognised the name when he showed them the items he had found.

"It was just weird to find that much money in the backcountry, and the IDs," he said. "My immediate thought was it was a hiker or backpacker’s stuff, and a bear got to the stuff and took it away to look for food or whatever."

Mr Morrow said he returned to the scene with his wife and three friends on Tuesday to search further and did not find any plane wreckage or human remains. They found a black Nautica pullover fleece in the same area but Mr Morrow said he was not sure if the items were related.

Crystal Schafer, a Mammoth Lakes police investigator, confirmed that the department had the items.

Fossett was declared legally dead in February by an Illinois judge. The latest reports have put his family and friends back on tenterhooks. His widow, Peggy, said in a statement yesterday: "I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband’s remains. I am grateful to all of those involved in this effort."

Andy Green, the current landspeed record holder who was helping Fossett prepare a record-breaking attempt, said: "I really want to know what happened to my friend Steve but there’s still a chance he might be alive somewhere if there isn’t evidence of a fatal crash, so I’m a bit torn."

Green, an RAF fighter pilot who lives in London, said: "His widow has found it very hard, as anyone would, when your husband of many years just disappears.

"For all of them, I’m hopeful that finally we will have some closure on this."

Mr Fossett, a good friend of Sir Richard Branson, was a multi-millionaire who made his fortune dealing stocks in Chicago. He set dozens of world records in sailboats, gliders and hot-air balloons and famously made the first solo non-stop, non-refuelled circumnavigation of the world in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. In 2002, he was the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.

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