Nevada ? Authorities worried Monday that a call for private volunteers to help the government search the rugged Nevada wilderness for missing aviator Steve Fossett may attract people who don’t have proper training and could ultimately need saving themselves.

A private search effort is being driven in part by hotel magnate Barron Hilton, who has opened the mile-long airstrip at his Flying M Ranch – the same runway Fossett took off from a week ago – to search planes and helicopters. On Sunday, a notice was posted on Fossett’s Web site calling for pilots, helicopters and volunteers to supplement the search.

While the private effort has worked side by side with the government during the eight-day hunt, officials said they are becoming worried that the latest call for volunteers could bring in people who have no experience with combing the vast – and often dangerous – landscape.

“It has not been condoned, nor is it necessarily helpful to the law enforcement community,” Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford said Sunday. “We don’t want searchers to have to go out to look for searchers.”