Team Set for a New Search to Find Amelia Earhart Wreckage

[c.d.]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/video/team-set-for-a-new-search-to-find-amelia-earhart-wreckage/vi-BBkyOTL?ocid=DELLDHP

c.d.

[Rosella]

They've narrowed the search area down quite a bit, haven't they? I thought that part of a compact and a jar for skin cream, of 1930's vintage, was found on an atoll a few years ago, perhaps the same place. An enduring mystery might be solved, which is good.

[Graham]

If you want more information about what the search team have done, are doing, and hope to do, look here: http://tighar.org.

It's good to see that the law-suit against Ric Gillespie and Tighar has been dismissed.

There certainly were some objects found in recent times which could have been personal possessions of a Western woman, and also aircraft fragments which could have come from a Lockheed Electra. I've been interested in this mystery for years, and I suppose that if pressed I'd have to say that it's maybe 90% certain that Earhart and Noonan did indeed make landfall on Gardner Island, but absolute proof positive is still lacking. I really hope that this time Tighar can come up with the goods!

Graham

[Mayerling]

If you want more information about what the search team have done, are doing, and hope to do, look here: http://tighar.org.

It's good to see that the law-suit against Ric Gillespie and Tighar has been dismissed.

There certainly were some objects found in recent times which could have been personal possessions of a Western woman, and also aircraft fragments which could have come from a Lockheed Electra. I've been interested in this mystery for years, and I suppose that if pressed I'd have to say that it's maybe 90% certain that Earhart and Noonan did indeed make landfall on Gardner Island, but absolute proof positive is still lacking. I really hope that this time Tighar can come up with the goods!

Graham

It would be nice if the matter was finally settled. I always thought that must have been one of the loneliest ends of any major aviation figure.

Jeff

[GUT]

It would be nice if the matter was finally settled. I always thought that must have been one of the loneliest ends of any major aviation figure.

Jeff

Be great to unravel this one.

[Pcdunn]

Travel Channel has a show called "Expddition Unknown" which looks at global mysteries. Their first episode was on Amelia's disappearance.

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt4305162/episodes

I like this show. It is hosted by Josh Gates, previously leader of the "Destination Unknown" team, but is less silly and more informational.

[kensei]

I've heard some fairly convincing evidence presented- at two different times in two different independent investigations- that Amelia was captured by the Japanese and held for some time on Saipan, where she was eventually executed. As conspiracy theories go, at least it doesn't involve her being abducted by aliens.

[Rosella]

It's true though, isn't it, that no U.S. Government documents nor any copy of a communication from FDR regarding a spy mission by Amelia has ever been discovered? I believe the FBI investigated these rumours and never found anything concrete to back them.

If she and Fred Noonan did die on Gardner, presumably from starvation, exposure and lack of fresh water, it would have been a dreadful death, far worse IMO than any execution by the Japanese.

[Graham]

The 'kidnapped by the Japanese' rumour is as old almost as the mystery itself. The thing is that the Electra was incapable of flying into any Japanese territory as it existed in 1937. Also the Japanese were asked after the war to search their records, and came up with nothing (if they are to be believed, of course, and I see no reason why they shouldn't be).

Amelia Earhart was apparently not the wonder aviatrix she's been cracked up to be, and has been described as a pilot of only average ability. On top of this is the now well-established fact that the R/T equipment of the Electra had been damaged on take-off (footage exists) and the aircraft could only transmit and not receive.

Graham

[Abby Normal]

admittedly I don't know much about the case, but isn't most likely she just crashed in the pacific ocean somewhere and any evidence/wreckage found on land just washed up there?

[Mayerling]

The 'kidnapped by the Japanese' rumour is as old almost as the mystery itself. The thing is that the Electra was incapable of flying into any Japanese territory as it existed in 1937. Also the Japanese were asked after the war to search their records, and came up with nothing (if they are to be believed, of course, and I see no reason why they shouldn't be).

Amelia Earhart was apparently not the wonder aviatrix she's been cracked up to be, and has been described as a pilot of only average ability. On top of this is the now well-established fact that the R/T equipment of the Electra had been damaged on take-off (footage exists) and the aircraft could only transmit and not receive.

Graham

Hi Graham,

The "Japanese spy" story goes back to World War II, when a film with Rosalind Russell and Fred MacMurray called "Flight For Freedom" is a fictionalized version (heavily) of Amelia discovering proof of Japanese rearmament in some islands they were not supposed to be in, and crashing her plane near "Gull Island" (supposedly "Howland" where she was to land) to force an international search that will reveal Japanese militaristic perfidity.

Problem about the theory is that by 1937 it was a poorly kept secret that Japan was heavily rearming for further warfare. She was already involved (since 1931) in fighting in China, and in 1937 her planes sank a U.S. gunboat, "the Panay" "by accident", setting off a serious international incident. Even if FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt (Eleanor was a close friend of Amelia Earhart) were interested in using the around-the-world trip for spying on Japan, they were not really uninformed about what was going on there. In fact, about the same time, a U.S. baseball team did a tour of Japan with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig among the players. One of the players was taking "home movies" of Tokyo and other cities in the tour, and (apparently) photographing military installations in the major cities.

Jeff

[kensei]

If the Japanese theory is correct, no paper trail being offered up by either the American or Japanese government is hardly surprising. If Amelia agreed to use her flight for spying purposes, it was a black project never to be revealed. And besides, even if she was not spying at all the Japanese still may have suspected that she was, and if they captured and killed her and ended up creating one of the biggest mysteries of all time it's hardly surprising that they would cover it up. If the capture happened in an area outside where they are officially known to have had a presence, well, I'm sure there are many forays by the military forces of all nations that go undetected and do not go down in history. The truth is always one of the biggest casualties of war.

I'm no scholar on the case, I've just quickly perused some of the material and apparently it is rather common knowledge amongst the population on Saipan that Amelia died there, with an attitude of "Mystery? What mystery?" Her plane is also said to have been brought there and burned.

[Graham]

Jeff and Kensei,

yep, I know most of the background info to this mystery, including some that is even true! I even saw the Fred McMurray film years ago! Unfortunately there is not a shred of proof that Earhart and Noonan were out on a spying mission. I do, however, concede that someone in authority may have asked them to make notes of anything 'unusual' that they say during their flight, but again no evidence exists for such a request. (The British presence in the Far East were definitely engaged in spying on the Japanese, and vice versa, especially with regard to naval matters). I am not sure that in 1937 the Japanese had actually begun to interest themselves militarily in Pacific islands that were not under Japanese mandate, but they certainly did not long afterwards.

A lot of Tighar's past discoveries are open to question and speculation, but I do feel that they have very possibly found evidence that an aircraft did at some point crash-land on Gardner, but so far haven't been able to prove that it was Earhart's (and to be brutally honest, I wonder if they ever will. But if they do, that will be great!).

And I agree with Abby Normal that if no absolute proof of Earhart's crash-landing on Gardner is found, then it's a 99.99% safe bet they they just flopped down into the Pacific, out of fuel.

Graham

[Errata]

If the Japanese either had her or know what happened to her, I might understand why they might not say something right after the war. But why would they still be keeping it a secret?

[kensei]

If the Japanese either had her or know what happened to her, I might understand why they might not say something right after the war. But why would they still be keeping it a secret?

Well I think it's the same with individuals, organizations, or even governments- once you've covered something up and seem to have gotten away with it you tend to keep on covering it up, especially if people are looking elsewhere for the truth, and if fences are mended years later and you consider coming clean it feels like the other party will angrily say "You've been lying ALL ALONG?!!!" and there goes your mended fence and that feels too intimidating. So you convince yourself- it's water under the bridge, it would only open old wounds, etc. I suppose there's also the possibility of a present generation just now finding out what a past generation did and feeling that they'd look like fools for not knowing for so long.