Fossett died instantly as plane hit mountain in cloud

MILLIONAIRE adventurer Steve Fossett died when his plane slammed into a mountain on a cloudy day, police said yesterday.

The discovery comes more than a year after Mr Fossett disappeared while hunting for a location to attempt the landspeed record. Jeff Page, the emergency management co-ordinator for Lyon County, Nevada, said: "It was a hard-impact crash and he would have died instantly."

Search teams were led to the wreckage of the 63-year-old's plane this week after a hiker stumbled across a pilot's licence and other ID cards belonging to him.

The belongings were found close to where his single-engine plane was later spotted – near the town of Mammoth Lakes in eastern California – and could have been pulled from the wreckage by animals, investigators said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said bone fragment also found at the site should provide enough DNA to determine whether the remains belonged to Mr Fossett.

The wreckage of the plane was found amid debris spread over a 400ft by 150ft area on a steep mountainside. Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact and the engine was found several hundred feet away.

Search teams are now planning to revisit the crash site to look for more traces of the aviator, who was declared legally dead in February.

Meanwhile, friends of Mr Fossett yesterday paid tribute. Andy Green, the British holder of the world landspeed record,

said:

"I hope Steve's adventurer's spirit will be carried on and a landspeed record will be carried through."