US Fossett 3 - Sheriff says remains found at Fossett's plane 'not human'
NAME: US FOSSETT 3 20081003I
TAPE: EF08/1003
IN_TIME: 11:00:08:08
DURATION: 00:02:33:00
SOURCES: AP Television/Various
DATELINE: Mammoth Lakes - 2 Oct 2008
RESTRICTIONS: See Script
SHOTLIST
AP Television
October 2, 2008
++DAWN SHOTS++
1. Various of Search and Rescue team preparing for mission to find missing adventurer Steve Fossett
ABC - No access North America/Internet
October 2, 2008
2. SOUNDBITE (English) John Anderson, Madera County Sheriff:
"I want to tell you equivocally we have not found any human remains at the crash site. We did discover near the wreckage what appears to be bones."
AP Television
October 2, 2008
++DAWN SHOTS++
3. Wide view of landscape
ABC - No access North America/Internet
October 2, 2008
4. SOUNDBITE (English) John Anderson, Madera County Sheriff:
"There are no human bones that were discovered today to my knowledge. They certainly could be after an examination by a certified pathologist but I'm not willing to make that certification. I would say it did appear to be a bone."
AP Television
October 2, 2008
++NIGHT SHOT++
5. Search and Rescue Team members and vehicle
AP Television
October 2, 2008
++NIGHT SHOTS++
6. Various of search and rescue team members
AP Television
October 2, 2008
7. Acting chairman of National Transportation Safety Board Mark Rosenker walking to speak to reporters
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Rosenker, NTSB acting Chairman:
"Given the length of time that the wreckage has been there, it is not surprising to come into a debris field and not find a lot of human remains."
AP Television
October 2, 2008
++DAWN SHOTS++
9. Various of search and rescue team
ABC - No Access North America/Internet
October 2, 2008
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of National Transportation Safety Board:
"We had some photographs that were presented to us, that we reviewed briefly this morning, that tells us some preliminary information. That information is indicative of a high impact crash which appears to be consistent with a non survivable accident."
++Mandatory Courtesy: Sierrawave.net - No Access North America/Internet
October 1, 2008
11. Various identifications belonging to Steve Fossett
STORYLINE:
A California Sheriff said on Thursday that no human remains were found at the remote plane crash site of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, but what appeared to be bones found nearby may or may not be human.
Madera County Sheriff John Anderson's comment came hours after a federal official had said remains found at the site were those of a person.
But Anderson said late on Thursday: "I want to tell you equivocally we have not found any human remains at the crash site.
He said that "what appeared to be bones" were discovered nearby but didn't want to speculate whether they were human or not.
"There are no human bones that were discovered today to my knowledge. They certainly could be after an examination by a certified pathologist but I'm not willing to make that certification," he said.
Officials have said the remains found were sufficient for DNA testing.
The wreckage of Fossett's plane was found more than a year after the disappearance of the millionaire adventurer in the rugged Sierra Nevada.
Fossett, the 63-year-old thrill-seeker, vanished on a solo flight 13 months ago. The mangled debris of his single-engine plane was spotted from the air late on Wednesday near the town of Mammoth Lakes. It was identified by its tail number.
Investigators said the plane had slammed straight into a mountainside.
Rescuers were on Thursday searching an amid a field of debris that stretched 400 feet (122 metres) long and 150 feet (46 metres) wide in a steep section of the mountain range, the NTSB said.
An aerial search late on Wednesday spotted what appeared to be wreckage in the Inyo National Forest near Mammoth Lakes and ground crews confirmed the tail number matched Fossett's single-engine Bellanca plane.
Speaking earlier on Thursday, federal investigators said they had found body parts amid the wreckage of the plane but Marke Rosenker, the acting chairman of the NTSB said they found very little remains.
"Given the length of time that the wreckage has been there, it is not surprising to come into a debris field and not find a lot of human remains," he said.
He said then, very little had been found and would not describe what remains had been found.
Some personal effects also were found at the crash site, but investigators would not describe them in any detail.
Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away.
The search began after a hiker stumbled upon three identification cards and 1005 US dollars in cash apparently belonging to Fossett in the area.
The plane wreckage was found about a quarter-mile from where hiker Preston Morrow made his discovery on Monday.
The IDs provided the first possible clue about Fossett's whereabouts since he disappeared on 3 September 2007, after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.
The plane crashed about 90 miles (145 kilometres) south of the ranch.
Mammoth Lakes had not been considered a likely place to find Fossett's plane.
The most intense searching was concentrated north of the town, given what searchers knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his plans for when he had intended to return and the amount of fuel he had in the plane.
Still, the steep, rugged area around the wreckage site had been flown over 19 times by the California Civil Air Patrol during the initial search, Anderson said.
A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February following a search for the famed aviator that covered 20-thousand square miles.