Fossett searchers check Calif., Nev. sites

MINDEN, Nev., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Rescuers investigated three new possible crash sites as the search for missing U.S. aviator Steve Fossett entered its 11th day.

All three, one in California's Sonora Pass and two near Minden, Nev., were considered unlikely spots but were the "best new leads we have," Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The search, underway since Labor Day, has involved more than 200 searchers from the Nevada National Guard, state Civil Air Patrol and sheriff's deputies from five Nevada counties using more than 70 airplanes and helicopters. Dozens of volunteers in other planes have assisted, flying from from hotel magnate Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, from which Fossett departed.

Meantime, authorities ruled out the possibility that one of the pilots of an old plane wreck found in Nevada was Charles Ogle, who vanished after taking off from Oakland, the Chronicle reported.

Searchers dated the crash from 1961, three years before Ogle was reported missing.