Adventurer Steve Fossett is missing somewhere in Nevada. Fossett’s small plane disappeared Monday as he was scouting dry lake beds in western Nevada, apparently searching for an optimum spot to set a world land speed record. The region of rugged peaks and wide, smooth valleys in western Nevada apparently was not his first choice, however. Fossett already had sought approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to use a 15-mile-long playa in remote east-central Nevada, said Chris Worthington, a bureau spokesman in Battle Mountain.

Fossett’s Marathon Racing Inc. had applied for a special recreation permit earlier this year in anticipation of making a run in Eureka County, about 225 miles east of Reno and 200 miles from where crews are searching for Fossett’s plane. Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan said authorities were told Fossett took off on Monday to scout sites he could use for testing.