Steve Fossett Millionaire adventurer declared dead!
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February 16th, 2008
STEVE FOSSETT, the tycoon and adventurer who became the first person to circle the globe in a hot-air balloon, has officially been declared dead five months after he disappeared in a flight over the mountains of Nevada.
Fossett was flying a single engine aircraft when he vanished from radar screens. A month-long search and rescue mission found no trace of Fossett or his plane.
Steve Fossett’s full name is James Stephen Fossett, (born April 22, 1944 – missing September 3, 2007, declared legally dead February 15, 2008). He was an American aviator, sailor, and adventurer who became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon. He made his fortune in the financial services industry and was best known for many world records, including five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.
As a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club, Fossett set 116 records in five different sports, 60 of which still stand.
His wife of 40 years had pleaded with the American authorities to certify her husband dead once the search had ended. At the request of his wife, Peggy V Fossett, a judge declared Fossett legally dead in Cook County Circuit Court as a step toward resolving the legal status of his estate, said her attorney, Michael LoVallo.
Fossett’s estate, an estimated eight-figure sum, can now be split up.
The self-made tycoon and adventurer struck up a high-profile rivalry with the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson during the the 1980s and 1990s as the two men battled to take a hot air balloon around the world for the first time.
In 1998, he joined forces with his rival and struck up a strong friendship with Branson as they jointly tried for the record.
Branson, Fossett and Per Lindstrand, a Swedish balloonist, made it more than halfway round the world before poor wind conditions forced them to ditch in shark-infested waters off Honolulu on Christmas Day.
After six failed attempts, Fossett took the the crown in 2002 after floating nonstop for 19,428 miles around the southern hemisphere. The record-breaking trip took him two weeks.
In 2005, Fossett became the first solo pilot to fly a plane around the world without stopping to refuel after Branson paid for the plane GlobalFlyer.
A year later in the same aircraft he completed the longest nonstop plane flight in aviation history, flying 26,389 miles in 76 hours
Fossett’s other exploits included climbing the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro, and swimming the English Channel.
In all he set more than 100 seperate records as a pilot, sailor and hot-air balloon navigator, of which 60 still stand.
Fossett, a Stanford graduate, used his self-made fortune to fund the adventures.
Fossett won an economics degree at Stanford University before completing a master’s degree in business administration at Washington University.
He went to become a successful stockbroker and made his millions trading soy beans, setting up several trading companies, including Marathon Securities and Lakota Trading.
Fossett is survived by his widow Peggy.
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