Wife Seeks To Have Adventurer Declared Dead

Monday, November 26th 2007, 9:35 pm

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) -- The wife of missing adventurer Steve Fossett says it's time. Through her lawyer, Peggy Fossett is asking a Chicago-area court to declare her husband dead. Her petition says she believes the millionaire pilot was killed in a plane crash in September.

Her lawyer says it's painful for Mrs. Fossett, but the legal steps need to begin to resolve Fossett's vast estate.

The 63-year old adventurer disappeared September 3rd after taking off in a single-engine plane from a Nevada airstrip. According to his wife, he wasn't scouting out new landing surfaces but was on a pleasure flight.

A rescue effort was officially suspended after more than a month of fruitless searching. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a preliminary report that the plane was destroyed in a fatal accident.