MAMMOTH LAKES, California (AP) -- California officials say recovery efforts around the site of adventurer Steve Fossett's downed plane may not resume until summer.
Snowfall ended the search in the Sierra Nevada on Friday. Madera County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Erica Stuart says she does not expect weather conditions to improve enough for crews to return to the site this year.
Authorities say they completed most of what they needed to do Friday when they removed debris from Fossett's plane and found three more bone fragments.
The bone fragments will be sent to a lab to determine whether they are human and a match for Fossett.
Fossett vanished in September 2007 during what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight. Wreckage from his plane was discovered last week, solving the lingering mystery of his disappearance.
But a larger question remains: What caused such an accomplished aviator to crash in a place he knew well, on a fine September day?
Finding the answer may take many months. On Friday, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began hauling debris from the crash site by helicopter. They plan to reassemble the plane at a Sacramento warehouse, piece by tiny piece, to look for mechanical failures. Gathering archival weather records, including winds, clouds and turbulence for the day of his flight, also is not simple, officials said. With luck, radar data will help determine Fossett's path and pinpoint the time of the crash...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/05/fossett.search.weather.ap/index.html
