MAMMOTH LAKES , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A small amount of human remains has been found in the wreckage of the plane that adventurer Steve Fossett was flying when he disappeared last year , a National Transportation Safety Board official said Thursday . The wreckage of adventurer Steve Fossett 's plane was found in California 's Sierra Nevada on Thursday . A search team that was examining the wreckage , which was found Wednesday at an altitude of about 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes , found `` very little '' remains among the debris , acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said . Asked whether the remains were enough for an identification , Rosenker said , `` I believe the coroner will be able to do some work . '' Earlier Thursday , Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said the single-engine Bellanca appeared to have crashed into the side of a mountain in the Sierra Nevada in eastern California , and the damage was `` so severe I doubt someone would 've walked away from it . '' See a map of the crash site Â '' Fossett was last seen the morning of September 3 , 2007 , when he took off from the Flying-M Ranch outside Minden , Nevada , on what he said would be a pleasure flight over the Sierra Nevada . Watch how searchers located the wreckage Â '' Investigators homed in on the area near Mammoth Lakes on Wednesday after hikers there found a sweatshirt , cash and identification cards with Fossett 's name . The hikers did not find any wreckage ; an aerial search discovered the airplane parts about a quarter-mile away , Anderson said . Ground crews confirmed Wednesday night that the wreckage was Fossett 's plane . The sheriff said authorities were not certain whether the cash and sweatshirt belonged to Fossett . The engine was about 300 feet higher on the mountain than the fuselage and the wings , Anderson said . An NTSB team arrived Thursday to investigate the crash . Rosenker said investigators , based on examinations of the debris , believe that the plane struck the mountain horizontally but not necessarily head-on . It may take `` weeks , perhaps months to have a better understanding of what happened on that mountain that day , '' he said . Watch NTSB say crash was `` nonsurvivable '' Â '' Fossett 's disappearance prompted a search that ultimately included thousands of volunteers , hundreds of officials and dozens of aircraft poring over an area more than twice the size of New Jersey . The search was officially suspended a year ago Friday , and a Chicago probate court judge declared Fossett dead in February . Fossett made his money in the financial services industry but became renowned for his daredevil exploits . He was the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon , accomplishing the feat in 2002 , and the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling , which he did three years later . He also set world records in round-the-world sailing and cross-country skiing . Browse a list of his achievements on land , sea and air Â '' CNN 's Chuck Afflerbach contributed to this report .