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(CNN) -- Authorities have found the plane Steve Fossett was flying when he disappeared last year, but they have not found the millionaire adventurer's body, the Madera County, California, sheriff said Thursday.

Fossett's pilot's license and a torn $100 bill were found by a hiker Wednesday.

"They did locate an aircraft which we have now confirmed is the one Steve Fossett was flying when it disappeared last Labor Day," Sheriff John Anderson told reporters at a news conference in Mammoth Lakes.

The plane apparently crashed head-on into the side of a mountain, and the damage was "so severe I doubt someone would've walked away from it," the sheriff said.

Anderson said local authorities would search for Fossett's remains, and the National Transportation Safety Board would try to determine why and how the crash occurred. Video Watch how searchers located the wreckage »

The sheriff's department said Wednesday that wreckage was spotted during an aerial search of the area where hikers had discovered items apparently belonging to the missing aviator.

A Thursday NTSB statement said, "The Bellanca 8KCAB (N240R) has been missing since September 3, 2007, when the pilot departed Yerington, Nevada for a local flight. The wreckage was located at about 10,000 feet of elevation in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes, California."

Hours before Wednesday's aerial sighting, hikers found cash and identification cards with Fossett's name.

"We're not certain that it belongs to Steve Fossett, but it certainly has his name on the I.D." said Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Randy Schienle.
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Many, many years ago, there was a C-130 that flew into the face of a hard rock mountain at night in Taiwan. The effect was the same as if you were to stand facing a brick wall and throwing a cube of ice with all of your might at the wall. At the point of impact there would be some compressed remenants of the cube, but for the most part it would have shattered into very small fragement, in effect mostly gone. For the C-130 the effect was the same. The largest pieces of human remains that were found would have fit into a standard small wooden matchbox. However, there were lots of wallets, ID cards etc, pretty much in tack. The pieces of the a/c didn't fare much better.

Based on the reports that I've heard so far, the crash that SF had was one of the same - flying at full power directly into a hard rock wall. Why, we will probably never know. Perhaps he was looking at a map (he was doing a survey of some sort for future efforts as I recall) and failed to keep a frequent enough check out the windshield, and the a/c arrived at the mountain sooner than he realized. Anyway, that is only speculation.

When the local sheriff says that the bone fragment found is probably not human, I'm afraid that he is not familiar with the realities of air crashes in the extreme. I think that SF didn't suffer, and didn't leave much in the way of remains, and the elements, and the critters, took care of that pretty quickly, so don't expect to read about the discovery of a body. DNA will likely identfy the bone fragement as one of the few bits of what was left. RIP SF.

Ron

Rest In Peace Steve Fossett.

Additional possibility! There is an effect that occurs frequently along the Sierra Mountain range, and there is a school to train GA pilots in safe mountain operations. It goes like this (generally speaking): the prevailing wind is from west to east - due to the near by Pacific Ocean. When this wind gets to the mountains, as it passes over the crest of the mountains, it create a wave like feature that curles down the eastern slope with considerable force. A light aircraft approaching from east to west, meeting this wave effect is forced downward, usually pretty near the mountain, when it is to late to turn around, and the a/c having too little power to deal with the situation by rapidly climbing out of trouble, is forced into the side of the mountain. This happens all too frequently to pilots who are not aware of the possiblity of this effect. Maybe SF failed to take this possibility in mind. He was found on an eastern slope. So many possibles, and no real data upon which to base an opinion. Allows for discussion anyway, but will never really solve the mystery.

Ron

Interesting idea.

Steve Fossett was an incredibly accomplished glider pilot. He set the absolute glider altitude record of over 50,000 ft. several years ago flying in a glider in Argentina. Yes in a glider. Using pressure suites borrowed from NASA, the same ones SR-71 and U-2 pilots wear, he and a college flew in mountain wave all the way up to that record altitude.

I have no doubt that Steve Fossett fully understood mountain wave activity especially in the Sierra's as he set many distant records in gliders flying in the Sierra wave.

However understanding and being aware of it doesn't mean you can't be bitten by it.

That's why it just doesn't make sense. Such and accomplished and knowledgeable pilot apparently flying head on into the side of a mountain. Just doesn't add up. We'll probably never know what really happened.