Amazon has started a Mechanical Turk search for Steve Fossett, like they did with Jim Gray. If you have a few minutes please head over and look through a few photos.
It does make me think of Atlas Shrugged, though, where the people who ran, invented, or otherwise did everything just quit. And in some cases flew out west and disappeared in the mountains to start their own community.
I have to agreee with you. Perhaps we should keep a lookout for disappearing Train Magnates next!