Steve Fossett

The National Transportation Safety Board has published the official "probable cause" of the 2007 accident that cost wealthy adventurer Steve Fossett his life. It was "the pilot's inadvertent encounter with downdrafts that exceeded the climb capability of the airplane [in combination with] mountainous terrain." It sounds as if it were an act of God: Poor Fossett was flying along and suddenly a rogue wind grabbed him and slammed him into a mountain.

Steve Fossett, the multimillionaire aviation and sailing world record holder who has been missing since taking off alone in a single-engine plane from a private Nevada airstrip in early September, was declared legally dead Friday by an Illinois court. He was 63. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Malak ruled that there was sufficient evidence to declare Fossett dead after he heard testimony from Fossett's wife, Peggy, as well as from an expert on search and rescue operations.

The search for adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished in September after taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch, resumes today when a team of athletes and mountaineers starts hiking through rugged mountains on the California-Nevada border where he may have crashed. The 10-member team is headed by Simon Donato, 31, a Canadian geologist whose avocation is adventure racing through wilderness areas around the world.

. -- Trying to solve the year-old mystery revolving around vanished adventurer Steve Fossett, searchers scoured the rugged backcountry here until dark Wednesday after authorities announced that a hiker had discovered the billionaire's IDs. Late Wednesday, authorities said aerial searchers spotted "what could be wreckage of a plane" in the area. A crew hopes to reach the site this morning. The search is being conducted as a storm draws near.

After an exhaustive search by the Civil Air Patrol, sophisticated analysis of satellite images and a year of uncertainty, it finally came down to this: A lone hiker and his dog. On Thursday, 43-year-old Preston Morrow was weary. He had done more than 30 interviews with reporters from around the world, all eager to know how he stumbled on the clues that led searchers to the wreckage of adventurer Steve Fossett's single-engine plane as well as a bone fragment that might be human.

Madera County officials announced Monday that the DNA of two bones discovered last week in a remote part of the Sierra Nevada matched that of missing adventurer Steve Fossett. County officials said they had received test results from a California Department of Justice forensics lab in Richmond, Calif., that conclusively showed that the bones found Oct. 29 belonged to Fossett, who vanished over a year ago.

Steve Fossett, a high-profile tycoon adventurer who has courted danger while setting world records in aviation and sailing, was missing Tuesday and the subject of an intense search a day after flying off in a single-engine plane from a Nevada airfield. Federal, Nevada and California authorities, in aircraft and on the ground, focused on a rugged 600-square-mile expanse of mountains and high desert in their search for the wealthy businessman.

The hunt for aviator Steve Fossett ended its second full day Wednesday with searchers continuing to express hope that the missing pilot could be found alive, buoyed by reports of possible sightings of his plane along the rugged eastern Sierra. More than 650 rescuers on the ground and in the air continued the painstaking search for the 63-year-old adventurer and his blue-and-white single-engine aircraft over a vast swath of craggy desert and forested mountains straddling Nevada and California.

Authorities expanded their search Thursday for missing aviator Steve Fossett to a broad swath stretching along the rugged eastern Sierra, including Nevada's sun-scorched Black Rock Desert and the expansive depths of Walker Lake. Fossett disappeared Monday after taking what he had said would be a short morning flight. After three full days of searching, officials remained hopeful that the 63-year-old aviation pioneer could still be found alive.

The search for adventurer Steve Fossett was expanded, but authorities said they were suspending night flights. Capt. April Conway, spokeswoman for the Nevada Air National Guard, told reporters in Reno that the air search had been extended to 17,000 square miles from 10,000 square miles. Conway said authorities now think Fossett's plane might have had a broader flight range.