Did they find Ameila Earhardt?

It seems like about once a year there is this sort of announcement. Right about the time that the group needs to raise money to continue their expeditions.
 
There is evidence of a female castaway, on an island reachable by Earhart's plane, in the correct timeframe. The next thing I'd be doing is side sonar scanning the sea floor around the island to see if the Electra is there.
 
Jack Spectre said:
There is evidence of a female castaway, on an island reachable by Earhart's plane, in the correct timeframe. The next thing I'd be doing is side sonar scanning the sea floor around the island to see if the Electra is there.
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These guys found some Al a few years ago that could have been from the plane. I am not sure what the status of that find is.
 
Re: Did they find Ameila Earhart?

ScottM said:
These guys found some Al a few years ago that could have been from the plane. I am not sure what the status of that find is.
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I believe it was determined from the rivet pattern that it did not come from an Electra.
 
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This bone can put it to rest, if they can get some DNA from it. They can compare markers to Earhart's extant relatives. Might shut them up finally. Might not.

Earhart hired the wrong navigator, got lost and died. Gerry Mock is far more interesting, since she completed the trip and did it solo.
 
ScottM said:
It seems like about once a year there is this sort of announcement. Right about the time that the group needs to raise money to continue their expeditions.
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Or in time for a Discovery Channel special. :wink2:

steingar said:
This bone can put it to rest, if they can get some DNA from it. They can compare markers to Earhart's extant relatives. Might shut them up finally. Might not.
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Is there still viable DNA after 7 decades in a such a climate?
 
Pi1otguy said:
Or in time for a Discovery Channel special. :wink2:


Is there still viable DNA after 7 decades in a such a climate?
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Quite possibly. As Scott points out, DNA has been recovered from the fossilized remains of dinosaurs, as well as other tissues exposed for long durations to the elements.
 
The TIGHAR guys get discussed maybe every other month or so on the Warbirds Information Exchange message board (yeah, I'm over there, too). Do you know how many aircraft they've successfully recovered so far?

Here's a list:











Ryan
 
Re: Did they find Ameila Earhart?

Tristar said:
I want to see a plane.
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OK

lockheed_electra.jpg
 
RyanShort1 said:
The TIGHAR guys get discussed maybe every other month or so on the Warbirds Information Exchange message board (yeah, I'm over there, too). Do you know how many aircraft they've successfully recovered so far?

Here's a list:











Ryan
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You forgot:
 
roncachamp said:
What would qualify one as better than Fred Noonan?
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He was considered one of the best celestial navigator around. Sure he could have effed up, but there may have been other reasons. Did she have an ADF in the plane? I don't remember.
 
Anthony said:
He was considered one of the best celestial navigator around. Sure he could have effed up, but there may have been other reasons. Did she have an ADF in the plane? I don't remember.
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Exactly. Noonan had spent some twenty years at sea as a navigator before becoming involved in aviation. He was a navigation instructor for Pan Am and mapped their Pacific routes. A better qualified navigator probably did not exist.

I seem to recall that it was discovered after the flight that the charts used by Noonan had the position of Howland off by six miles or so.
 
Jack Spectre said:
There is evidence of a female castaway, on an island reachable by Earhart's plane, in the correct timeframe.
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I have a very skeptical view on Tighar - they have a bad history of making claims that they can't back-up and which ultimately amount to nothing.

Untill a respected forensic person comes forward and says "This is a bone from a caucasian woman that has probably been sitting on an island for 75 years.", I'll be a doubter. That bone might be anything - whale, dolphin, turtle, whatever. Do they even know the bone is human (much less have any DNA)? Alternately, is this just an example of TIGHAR finding something - anything - and claiming "We found something on Gardner Island, and anything we find there is proof that Amelia crashed there."?

I suspect if they found an iPod there, they would connect it to Amelia's flight...
 
Ha ha ha! You two think you're funny!!

Jeeeez Ted, you could make a poster out of those pics! Love the mountains in the background btw!
 
Tristar said:
Ha ha ha! You two think you're funny!!

Jeeeez Ted, you could make a poster out of those pics! Love the mountains in the background btw!
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I was just gojnng to tell you to go to work. Any students today?
 
hey ted could you find a slightly larger picture of the aztec? those aren't quite big enough
 
Tristar said:
Jeeeez Ted, you could make a poster out of those pics! Love the mountains in the background btw!
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tonycondon said:
hey ted could you find a slightly larger picture of the aztec? those aren't quite big enough
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Yeah, I realized they were kind of large. But I think they're pretty pictures. :)
 
steingar said:
Earhart hired the wrong navigator, got lost and died. Gerry Mock is far more interesting, since she completed the trip and did it solo.
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Gerrie Mock chose a different route than Earhart; Manila, Guam, Wake, Hawaii. Earhart was flying to Howland from Lae, New Guinea.

Ann Pellegreno completed Earhart's trip in 1967, and in a Lockheed Electra. She didn't land on Howland but did drop a wreath there in honor of Earhart.
 
There was a documentary (2010) on TV last night (sorry, I forget the channel, and have deleted it from my DVR) about the TIGHAR team's 20+ year efforts to find Amelia. I thought it was interesting and the documentary well done.

TIGHAR have found a lot of potential evidence that seems to add up, but none of it is conclusive. And it is quite easy to (want to) interpret the artifacts and data in a manner to fit the hypothesis. Ultimately, they need to find the Electra or DNA to have their definitive proof.

<Spoiler alert below>
Someone posted earlier about a piece of the plane. The documentary showed 2 different pieces. One was a navigators bookcase which turned out to be from a B-24. The other was a wing or body skin, but the rivet patterns could not be matched to an Electra.

It was also posted that the navigator did not do a good job. After seeing the documentary, I disagree. The plan was to use star/celestial navigation to get near Howland Island, and then use radio navigation for the last few miles. A Coast Guard cutter was stationed near the island to provide the navigation signal. The Electra got close enough to the island for the cutter to hear her transmissions, but they could not establish 2-way comms. TIGHAR uncovered film footage of her last takeoff which showed a 'poof of smoke' appear on the bottom of the fuselage during takeoff roll. The speculation is that the main receiving antenna was knocked off the plane during the bouncy takeoff roll, thereby rendering the Electra unable to receive radio transmissions, and making the navigation plan unworkable.
 
Wasn't Noonan a drunk?

We got 3 kittens when we moved to NJ. I named mine Amelia Earhart.

Relevance to thread? None.
 
Anthony said:
He was considered one of the best celestial navigator around. Sure he could have effed up, but there may have been other reasons. Did she have an ADF in the plane? I don't remember.
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Probably not "ADF" but she must have had a "DF" (manually turned loop antenna) since they were trying to locate a NDB on the island they were intending to land on.
 
Ddayle said:
Maybe, but if he was not drunk at the time it has no relavance to their disappearance. Sober he was likely one of the best. Dave
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Actually, had he been imbibing significant quantities of alcohol prior to the last flight it could have significantly altered he cognitive abilities. That said, it is quite possible that the flight was beyond the technology of the time, trying to hit a small island below an undercast.
 
Ddayle said:
Maybe, but if he was not drunk at the time it has no relavance to their disappearance. Sober he was likely one of the best. Dave
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But if he was it might have. Drunk he could have been one of the worst.

Who knows?
 
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