Air Patrol searches for Steve Fossett

Air Patrol searches for Steve Fossett

A small plane carrying aviation adventurer Steve Fossett has been missing since Monday night.

Fossett took off in the single engine Bellanca at 8:45 a.m. Monday at a private airstrip on a ranch in western Nevada and did not return as scheduled. A friend reported him missing, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Maryland.

"The Civil Air Patrol is looking for him. One problem is he doesn't appear to have filed a flight plan," Gregor told The Associated Press.

The search was being coordinated by the Air Force's Rescue Coordination Center in Langley, Virginia, Gregor said.

"They are working on some leads, but they don't know where he is right now," Gregor said.