A man hiking in a remote part of Mammoth Lakes in California’s Sierra Nevada found a pilot’s license and an FAA card, both bearing the name of aviator Steve Fossett.

Authorities are now trying to verify the IDs and other items for authenticity. No human remains or plane pieces were found nearby so far, although a fleece pullover and some money were also retrieved in the same area.

The discovery is about 50 miles away from Nevada desert locations where teams had been searching for the well-known adventurer, who vanished while on a solo flight in a single-engine Bellanca Super Decathlon a year ago.

It has been assumed that Fossett, who has since been declared legally dead, crashed, and the search for him was suspended a month ago.

After Fossett’s disappearance, tens of thousands of Web users mounted an unusual online search mission, studying satellite photographs of a huge swath of ground.

The images were uploaded by Amazon (AMZN) to its Mechanical Turk, in an attempt to find a possible crash site.

Google Earth (GOOG) was also used in the effort, which is called “crowdsourcing.”

The Turk was also used in another unsuccessful search for Microsoft (MSFT) techie Jim Gray, who went missing on a boat off the coast of California.

Computer-aided image-scanning technology has also been used in the search for Fossett, to no avail, until this very old-school break was made.

HM Revenue and Customs Chancellor Alistair Darling broke the news to the public in a statement to the House of Commons, met with gasps of incredulity from those in attendence.

… Two password-protected discs containing a full copy of HMRC’s entire data in relation to the payment of child benefit was sent to the NAO, by HMRC’s post system operated by the courier TNT. The package was not recorded or registered. Mr. Speaker, it appears the data has failed to reach the addressee in the NAO.

“… The missing information contains details of all child benefit recipients: records for 25 million individuals and 7.25 million families. These records include the recipient and their children’s names, addresses and dates of birth; it includes child-benefit numbers, national insurance numbers and, where relevant, bank or building society account details.”

Astonishing, eh? Even more so given that the package containing the CDs–which was never registered or recorded–was mailed Oct. 18.

Huzzah!

Lawmakers and politicians met news of the breach with well-practiced outrage. Said Shadow Chancellor George Osborne: “Let us be clear about the scale of this catastrophic mistake–the names, the addresses and the dates of birth of every child in the country are sitting on two computer discs that are apparently lost in the post, and the bank account details and national insurance numbers of 10 million parents, guardians and carers have gone missing. Half the country will be very anxious about the safety of their family and the security, and the whole country will be wondering how on earth the government allowed this to happen.”

HM Revenue and Customs Chancellor Alistair Darling broke the news to the public in a statement to the House of Commons, met with gasps of incredulity from those in attendence.

… Two password-protected discs containing a full copy of HMRC’s entire data in relation to the payment of child benefit was sent to the NAO, by HMRC’s post system operated by the courier TNT. The package was not recorded or registered. Mr. Speaker, it appears the data has failed to reach the addressee in the NAO.

“… The missing information contains details of all child benefit recipients: records for 25 million individuals and 7.25 million families. These records include the recipient and their children’s names, addresses and dates of birth; it includes child-benefit numbers, national insurance numbers and, where relevant, bank or building society account details.”

Astonishing, eh? Even more so given that the package containing the CDs–which was never registered or recorded–was mailed Oct. 18.

Huzzah!

Lawmakers and politicians met news of the breach with well-practiced outrage. Said Shadow Chancellor George Osborne: “Let us be clear about the scale of this catastrophic mistake–the names, the addresses and the dates of birth of every child in the country are sitting on two computer discs that are apparently lost in the post, and the bank account details and national insurance numbers of 10 million parents, guardians and carers have gone missing. Half the country will be very anxious about the safety of their family and the security, and the whole country will be wondering how on earth the government allowed this to happen.”