MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — A hiker in a rugged part of eastern California found a pilot's license and other items that appear to belong to Steve Fossett, the adventurer who vanished on a solo flight more than a year ago, authorities said Wednesday.
The information on the pilot license — including Fossett's name, address, date of birth and certificate number — was sent in a photograph to the Federal Aviation Administration, and all matched the agency's records, spokesman Ian Gregor said.
"We're trying to determine the authenticity of the document," Gregor said.
The hiker, Preston Morrow, said he found an FAA identity card, a pilot's license, a third ID and $1,005 in cash tangled in a bush off a trail just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes on Monday. Mammoth Lakes police investigator Crystal Schafer confirmed that the department had the items.
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Search teams led by the Madera County Sheriff's Department have been sent to the scene.
Fossett, whose exploits included circumnavigating the globe in a balloon, disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20,000 square miles.
Fossett's widow, Peggy, said in a statement Wednesday that she was aware of Morrow's discovery .
"I am hopeful that this search will locate the crash site and my husband's remains," she said.
