Thread: Amelia Earhart: New evidence tells of her last days on a Pacific atoll

There have been many far-fetched and fabulous stories about the fate of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.


And yes, the TIGHAR crowd have had this theory about Gardner Island on the go for some time now (in fact it was considered as a possible crash site at the time) ... but , on their published evidence so far, it does still seem to demand a strong stretch of the imagination to give it credence. They are looking for big (rather big) bikkies for their funding and cynics could say that it would be just financing some of their jollies (including an annual Pacific trip).


Nikumaroro is over 600km from Earhart's intended destination (Howland Island) and almost half way to Samoa from Howland - and they did report being low on fuel. Baker Island is again to the southeast of Howland nut is considerably closer than Nikumaroro.


TIGHAR have been raising funds for some years now to conduct both lab tests and an actual field survey on Nikumaroro (Gardner Island). There was a ship wrecked there in the 1920s and if Amelia Earhart did survive a crash landing there in 1937 any remaining archaeological evidence could be confusing.


There is also compelling evidence that aircraft artifacts from WW2 incidents were subsequently spread throughout the region by locals visiting uninhabited atolls. the presence of any of this material would further confuse the issue unless it could be positively identified.


However, the disappearance for Earhart and Noonan is one of many aviation mysteries for which it would be nice to know the definite answer and I hope that they are willing to give an answer to this one even if their theory is wrong.


Most experts currently seem to go with the theory that Earhart missed finding Howland Is. by navigational area and ditched in the ocean.

They were actually abducted by aliens and found some years later by the crew of USS Voyager in the Alpha Quadrant.

New info.

Amelia Earhart 75th Anniversary Prompts New Expedition - Yahoo!

Hi lebanon...thanks for your update

The TIGHAR crowd are very wealthy and have efficient publicity & fundraising machines and your link shows another of their efforts ....
this one referring to their annual trip I mentioned in post #2 above....

Originally Posted by 87County

.................cynics could say that it would be just financing some of their jollies (including an annual Pacific trip).

It would be informative (if pricey) to attend one of their aviation archaeology schools or expeditions and it will be quite a coup for them if they find actual evidence ....

... but many unanswered questions will still remain (as will be the case with many historical mysteries - and as for instance is the case with the Southern Cloud (missing in 1931 - wreckage found in 1958).

I will be interested to see if any real evidence is found at Nikumaroro this time.

Hi 97county,

I totally agree with you, it reminds me of some archaeological shipwreck search societies that supposedly operate for the scientific research but are nothing but treasure hunters.

Let us keep following the news to see what will they end up to.

the tighar forums are all excited & enthusiastic

for example:

http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,571.1365.html

I remain somewhat sceptical (but interested)






0

Originally Posted by 87County

There have been many far-fetched and fabulous stories about the fate of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.


And yes, the TIGHAR crowd have had this theory about Gardner Island on the go for some time now (in fact it was considered as a possible crash site at the time) ... but , on their published evidence so far, it does still seem to demand a strong stretch of the imagination to give it credence. They are looking for big (rather big) bikkies for their funding and cynics could say that it would be just financing some of their jollies (including an annual Pacific trip).


Nikumaroro is over 600km from Earhart's intended destination (Howland Island) and almost half way to Samoa from Howland - and they did report being low on fuel. Baker Island is again to the southeast of Howland nut is considerably closer than Nikumaroro.


TIGHAR have been raising funds for some years now to conduct both lab tests and an actual field survey on Nikumaroro (Gardner Island). There was a ship wrecked there in the 1920s and if Amelia Earhart did survive a crash landing there in 1937 any remaining archaeological evidence could be confusing.


There is also compelling evidence that aircraft artifacts from WW2 incidents were subsequently spread throughout the region by locals visiting uninhabited atolls. the presence of any of this material would further confuse the issue unless it could be positively identified.


However, the disappearance for Earhart and Noonan is one of many aviation mysteries for which it would be nice to know the definite answer and I hope that they are willing to give an answer to this one even if their theory is wrong.


Most experts currently seem to go with the theory that Earhart missed finding Howland Is. by navigational area and ditched in the ocean.

It may be a bit more logical than you think.
SOP for the day was to fly or aim upwind of your destination (island) so once you hit your ETA you turn down wind if your island is not in sight.
But since they where bang on the equator the wind could have been in any direction, they would have passed though both north and southern winds. As they where just south of the equator they would have aimed north of the island, not seeing it they then would have headed south, this is SOP. Now they would have been flying no higher than 10Kft more like 8000ft. the Met of the day was from ships record keeping. Today we know that the Sothern wind above 5000ft is 3-7 times the force at sea level. It is quite understandable that they ended up at ETA south of their island and compounded the error by turning south believing that they were north of the island. And no I have never read about the topic but this is what is given as an example of things going wrong in Nav school.
i would be interested to know what time of day and if they where shooting the sun?

Originally Posted by 85 county

It may be a bit more logical than you think.
SOP for the day was to fly or aim upwind of your destination (island) so once you hit your ETA you turn down wind if your island is not in sight.
But since they where bang on the equator the wind could have been in any direction, they would have passed though both north and southern winds. As they where just south of the equator they would have aimed north of the island, not seeing it they then would have headed south, this is SOP. Now they would have been flying no higher than 10Kft more like 8000ft. the Met of the day was from ships record keeping. Today we know that the Sothern wind above 5000ft is 3-7 times the force at sea level. It is quite understandable that they ended up at ETA south of their island and compounded the error by turning south believing that they were north of the island. And no I have never read about the topic but this is what is given as an example of things going wrong in Nav school.
i would be interested to know what time of day and if they where shooting the sun?

It is indeed a logical possibility that she actually turned onto the LOP - however what is doubtful is the adequacy of the remaining fuel to get as far as Nikumaroro - we shall see

AFAIK ...........they had planned for July 2 about 0730 local? flying at 1,000ft asl

for those interested, these links are maybe worth a read ? http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/A...avigation.html & http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/earhartfaqs.html

http://www.ameliaearhartbook.com/new_page_14.htm