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Steve Fossett Declared Dead
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:34 PM
from the rest-in-peace dept.
from the rest-in-peace dept.
Parallax Blue writes "Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead Friday, 5 months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane. The self-made business tycoon, who in 2002 became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, was last seen Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif. He was 63."
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Nevada Governor to Bill Fossett Widow For Search 447 comments
sonchat writes with news that Nevada's "Gov. Jim Gibbons intends to bill the widow of missing multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett for $687,000 the state spent in searching for the famed aviator last fall, a spokesman said." Though in some places charging for the cost of a search effort is routine, apparently in Nevada it is not.
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Wife wanted his will put into effect? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wife wanted his will put into effect? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Wife wanted his will put into effect? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Wife wanted his will put into effect? (Score:4, Funny)
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Boy, will she have some explaining to do... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Billions and Billions... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is Fossett's wife in a rush to declare that her husband is dead?
Because it's probably pretty hard to run an estate of a billionaire without the guy being dead. Even billionaires have bills to pay.
Parent
Re:Jim Gray (Score:5, Insightful)
5 months is hardly 'in a rush' - remember with Fosset there are billions on the line and political and legal positioning to grab a slice of it will just pile up more and more the longer she waits. She's doing what needs to be done to protect the estate, as callous as that sounds but it needs to be done. One assumes someone who lives dangerously and has so much money like Fosset has left a will but greedy relatives and business partners can chew it all up in legal bills rather than whatever it was Fosset wanted done with his assets after he was gone.
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Faked death (Score:2, Interesting)
If he was a gangster rapper you'd see people coming up with faked death theories with weird patterns in numbers related to his disappearance to give us all hope...
Unfortunately he was no gangster rapper, only a simple average white billionaire..
Guest Appearnce (Score:5, Funny)
too soon, too soon
Parent
Re:Faked death (Score:5, Interesting)
We had a good friend of the family go missing and presumed dead when he was in his late 50's. He was wealthy (not stinking rich, but had owned a car dealership and good investments for 30 years). The circumstances caused our family to think that he had staged things, including insider info (such as a rented car... unusual... and certain affairs nicely wrapped up, including insurance).
Why, one wonders, would he do such a thing when he was at the top of his career and independently wealthy? Easy.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The man died with open eyes doing what he loved (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The man died with open eyes doing what he loved (Score:5, Funny)
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As a pilot, I hate it when... (Score:5, Informative)
Fortunately I have never been in such a dire predicament while behind the controls of a plane, the worst that's happened to me was a partial loss of power after takeoff during climbout in a C172, but I had plenty of altitude and an airport right behind me in easy gliding distance in case the engine quit completely, but I landed normally without incident. I can tell you I was certainly NOT loving it, and the emotion going thru my head was that I was pissed off at the airplane.
Two pilot friends of mine have died in small plane crashes, both due to making really stupid errors in judgement. As they drilled their respective planes into the dirt, they were not doing what they loved either. Both of them took friends and family members to their deaths with them too.
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Re:As a pilot, I hate it when... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're being overly literal. That's a generally accepted shorthand for "at least he was engaged in an activity he enjoyed, not rotting away in an Alzheimers ward or in the agonizing throes of cancer". Steve was definitely doing something he loved, save but for the last few minutes.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's a generally accepted shorthand for "at least he was engaged in an activity he enjoyed, not rotting away in an Alzheimers ward or in the agonizing throes of cancer".
Why is that any better? He's still dead. If you were to die from cancer, or some other long term disease, at least you die with the people around you. He died alone, in some unknown place. That's supposed to be "better"?
Re:As a pilot, I hate it when... (Score:4, Insightful)
My dad died alone in his front yard of a sudden, massive heart attack. We didn't get to gather around him, tell stories, and say goodbye as he faded. One day I got a call from my screaming mom, and that was it - he was dead.
Know what? That was better. We were together while he was still alive and healthy, and his family's last memories of him are as we always knew him: strong and happy and himself. I wouldn't change that for the world, and I know inside that he wouldn't either.
So, yeah. Steve Fossett died well.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:As a pilot, I hate it when... (Score:5, Funny)
You may be wrong about "what he loved" is referring to.
I personally, would be quite happy to die in a fiery explosion that produced a crater big enough to be visible from the moon. That'd be sweet (as long as no one else got hurt)! In that case, crashing wouldn't be what I loved, but making a crater would be.
"Doing what he loved" in some cases might also refer to some recreational pharmaceuticals and individuals of negotiable affection (though probably not in this case). I mean, with those involved, you might not actually notice you crashed until the ground rises up and smites you.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There aren't many people like him left. One less now that he's gone.
Big wilderness out there (Score:5, Interesting)
Then again, there is an almost-intact crashed plane near the western (Highway 190) entrance to Death Valley, near Towne Pass, that's in plain view of the highway yet almost impossible to see unless you know what you are looking for. It crashed in the 50s; it was part of a CIA mission and lost power over the Amargosa Valley. The crew bailed out near Furnace Creek, if my memory serves me correctly, then the plane crashed in the Panamint Range to the west.
Some pics from someone who hiked to the site: http://rides.webshots.com/album/292358776FDMVRo [webshots.com]
After seeing that on one of my outings, Fossett's plight isn't so incredible to me. Sucks to be him, but he certainly didn't live a hard knocks life prior to his demise.
OK That's it (Score:5, Insightful)
Right under this story I see a tag of "whogivesafuck."
That's just not acceptable.
Re:OK That's it (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
As an adventurer, a go-getter, a risk-taker, he inspires us to live.
Ballooning and flying long distances in a plane inspires you to live? I find that kind of sad. I don't need inspiration to live, do you?
The only people that really inspire me are anyone that's tried to change the world for the better. Hell, even Bill Gates is using his billions to do that. This guy has used to his billions for his own pleasure. There's nothing wrong with that, I guess. But I just don't understand why it's so inspiring
Re:OK That's it (Score:5, Informative)
I turned them off a long time ago since they provide no value.
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Re:OK That's it (Score:5, Insightful)
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
-- John Donne
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Re:OK That's it (Score:4, Insightful)
Within days of my daughter's murder somebody posted a message to me on a public forum stating "that bitch got popped."
Do I think that this person literally thought of my daughter as a "bitch?" No, but I do think that the opportunity to feel empowered by pissing me off was hard for them to resist. Unfortunately a lot of people are pricks and if there's the chance that they can appear to be some cool badass by showing how much of a prick they are then they'll jump at it.
Do I truly care about Steve Fossett's death? No, I didn't know him and frankly have far more to worry about. But do I have a sense of decorum when it comes to appreciating the pain that his friends and family are going through? Absolutely - and this wasn't a revelation I arrived at while I grieve but rather my basic human ability to empathize for others.
But then again I have many ways to feel personally empowered without needing to resort to "whogivesafuck" tagging.
And - I'm not a prick.
Drew Crecente
Director, Jennifer Ann's Group
http://www.jenniferann.org/ [jenniferann.org]
Fight Teen Dating Violence!
Parent
Inappropriate tagging" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Inappropriate tagging" (Score:4, Insightful)
I have no particular emotional involvement in the man's life or death - and nor do many others. That isn't to say I would have wished him ill - I just don't see why I should care. He seemed to have enjoyed life - good for him. This is just the judicial declaration of something that most people assumed long ago.
And if the death of someone I loved was reported on Slashdot, "who gives a fuck" would be an entirely appropriate tag.
More than that - it would be rather creepy if you DID give a fuck. Displays of public grief for people we do not know, but with whom we pretend an intimacy to which we are not really entitled are distasteful and should always be challenged.
I did not tag the article. That said, without wishing Fosset either well, or ill, but just on general principals that this is someone who I did not know, reports of the judicial declaration of death of whom are cluttering up Slashdot, I echo the tag: "Whogivesafuck?"
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Great! Now I know what to say when people say "But Jesus died ...!" "Who gives a f*ck?"
In
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You know how it goes ... they make an appeal based on guilt - "but Jesus died for you!" - as if you should be grateful.
My response - "Did Jesus die for you?"
Their reply "for sure!"
Me: "So basically you're saying Jesus is a double-dipper."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Inappropriate tagging" (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Inappropriate tagging" (Score:5, Interesting)
And I'm not so sure that they're as young as you think: I'm pretty certain that some of them have had plenty of time to grow up but didn't.
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Welcome to a new low (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe the tagger is just jealous, because this man did the right thing with all his money. Instead of attending stupid show-off parties, he used his money to make his dreams become reality.
Re:Welcome to a new low (Score:5, Funny)
Two chicks at the same time?
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Am I the only one who likes to dream that... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Am I the only one who likes to dream that... (Score:4, Funny)
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Strange occurances (Score:3, Interesting)
Humbled by our inability to find him (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I'd say there's a pretty good chance it was a sub-par model, all things considered.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hardly - the plane he was using was an aerobatic Bellanca-built Super Decathlon Citabria, [wikipedia.org] capable of inverted flight and frequently used for aerobatic training.
No kidding, here's the lineage... (Score:3, Informative)
(1) Champ
(2) Citabria (various versions)
-----> (2.5) Scout line derived from Citabria airframe to become bush-plane line.
(3) Decathlon
(4) Super Decathlon
Steve was flying the top of the line model, though the Scout probably would've been a better choice of a plane for the particular mission Steve was flying, if he would have had one available.
Re:Sad... (Score:4, Interesting)
It would take very roughly 1,750,000,000,000 light single-engine airplanes to cover the dry-land area of this planet -- or 15,500,000,000 for Nevada. Yes, it's a very big place. Aerial searches that find nothing are not in the least uncommon. An FAA district office I visited in Denver some years back had a wall map showing the last known positions of over thirty aircraft just in Colorado. Even Ohio, the most uniformly populated state, has one or two. Like to try an expensive science-fair project? Make a full-size cardboard effigy of a crashed airplane, have someone place it in a random spot in an area of, say, 20 x 20 miles, then charter an airplane and look for it.
It's spooky, really, but I have to think that there'll be a Slashdot story in a few years about how his bones and his plane were found using new Google Maps Streetview - Desert Edition.
There is an organized project trying to do that, right now.
rj
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