Nevada Civil Air Patrol has "downgraded" the search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett, suspending aerial missions while keeping two aircraft on standby to follow up any possible leads as to his whereabouts.

Nevada State police spokesman Chuck Allen told AFP news agency: "The Civil Air Patrol feel that they have completed their search of 98 per cent of the ground that needed to be covered."

The National Guard is, however, continuing its probe of the state with five helicopters, while ground-based rescuers scour the enormous area in which the remains of the presumably dead aviator and his Bellanca Citabria Super Decathalon lie.

Attempts to locate Fossett have been hampered by the fact that he did not file a flight plan before taking off on 3 September from Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, roughly 70 miles southeast of Reno. Efforts by volunteers using Amazon's Mechanical Turk and the latest sat images from Google Earth to spot the plane's wreckage have proved as fruitless as the physical operations.

Ominously, a police officer involved in those operations last week admitted Fossett "may never be found". ®

Related stories

• Fossett aircraft contains 'minimal' human remains (3 October 2008)
• Updated Crashed aircraft is Fossett's, authorities confirm (2 October 2008)
• Steve Fossett may be alive, investigator claims (28 July 2008)
• Steve Fossett dead: Official (18 February 2008)
• Declare Steve Fossett dead, asks adventurer's widow (28 November 2007)
• Google Earth mobilised in search for Fossett (10 September 2007)
• Fossett 'may never be found' (10 September 2007)
• Steve Fossett missing in Nevada (5 September 2007)