2007, steve fossett takes off from the flying ranch in nevada. heading out he promises to be back for lunch and nobody sees him. >> the best way to describe it, looking for a needle in a hay stack, within ten hours. >> reporter: the terrain there is rugged. the wilderness between western nevada and eastern california is vast. >> did that plane have the equivalent of a black box? >> it has an elt, a locater system that can be picked up by satellites. >> reporter: radar picks up the plane's crack along the sierra nevada mountains. >> before they could really pursue this evidence they were distracted by another piece of evidence that popped up which was a visual sight out in the