An aerial rescue team have found adventurer Steve Fossett’s Bellanca aircraft 10,000 ft up a mountain after a hiker found the pilot’s belongings a year after he disappeared.

The body parts, found in the plane, are expected to reveal – through DNA – whether the mystery of the 63-year-old’s disappearance is about to be solved. The crash site is in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California.

Fossett’s widow, Peggy, was awarded her husband’s estate, worth more than £6 million after he was declared officially dead by a Chicago court in February.