By Jim Christie SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Crews searched an eastern California mountain range for the remains of adventurer Steve Fossett after finding the wreckage of a small plane thought to be the one he was piloting when he disappeared in September 2007, police said on Thursday.The wreckage and debris of the airplane in rugged terrain suggest a violent and direct crash, said Shannon Kendall, a spokeswoman for the Mono County Sheriff's Department. The plane's engine was 300 feet (95 meters) away from what remained of its fuselage. "It's not intact by any means ... It looks like a very high impact crash," she said. "We're still searching for human remains."The federal National Transportation Safety Board has sent an investigator to the site in the area near the Nevada border and said in a statement the small airplane found late on Wednesday "appears to be the aircraft piloted by Steve Fossett." The plane wreckage was located about 10,000 feet (3,200 meters) up the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes, California. Fossett, 63 and a millionaire, vanished in a single-engine Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon after taking off on Sept. 3 of last year from the airstrip of hotel magnate Barron Hilton's ranch in Nevada. He did not file a flight plan but friends said he was going on a casual pleasure flight. The Bellanca, a plane capable of aerobatics, had enough fuel for four or five hours of flight. When Fossett did not return, a massive search was launched for the adventurer who held several aviation and sailing records. Despite weeks of extensive land and air searches after Fossett disappeared, no wreckage was found, and he was declared legally dead in February after investigators concluded that his plane was destroyed in a fatal accident. "The uncertainty surrounding my husband's death over this past year has created a very difficult situation for me," said his widow, Peggy Fossett. "I hope now to be able to bring to closure a very painful chapter in my life." Virgin Group founder and friend Richard Branson in London also treated the news as evidence of Fossett's demise -- and a rebuke to speculation that he might still be alive. "Now that the plane has been found we can finally bring closure to Steve's wonderful life," Branson said. "The frivolous stories can also be put to rest and family, friends and the rest of the world can now pay tribute to a truly great and extraordinary man." A hiker this week first found items belonging to Fossett, including two of his aviation identification cards, along with several $100 bills. The items were found in a rugged part of Madera County in the eastern Sierras between Yosemite National Park and the Nevada border. Police in California had said on Wednesday more than 30 search teams were being formed to comb the mountainous area for the wreckage in coming days ahead of a potential snowfall. (Additional reporting by John Crawley and Deborah Charles; Editing by Peter Henderson and Philip Barbara)
