New Guinea - Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan, en route to Howland Island, 2 July 1937

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Amelia Earhart Mystery Solved? 'Investigation Junkies' to Launch New Expedition

It has been 72 years since famed aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world. But the mystery remains unsolved: Nobody knows exactly what happened to Earhart or her plane.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery is planning another expedition to Nikumaroro Island in the hopes of uncovering DNA evidence that may show Amelia Earhart survived there for a short period of time.
(Courtesy of TIGHAR)
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Now researchers at the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or Tighar, say they are on the verge of recovering DNA evidence that would demonstrate Earhart had been stranded on Nikumaroro Island (formerly known as Gardner Island) before finally perishing there.

Much more at link:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=8160365&page=1

I have always been fascinated by this case. I thought she had an "I have a secret" grin in her pre-flight photo.
 
I went to the link - great article, and much of it thought-provoking. I have also found Amelia Earheart fascinating. I do hope answers are found.
 
I hope some answers are found too. It would be wonderful if they find they landed on this island and survived for quite some time. It has always been a story that I could make up different endings too when I was very, very young. Of course as a child they were all pleasant endings, but wouldn't it be nice if it really was.
 
If interested there is a thread on Amelia in the Cold Case section. We've have a lot of links posted to TIGHAR's website and regarding the events surrounding her disappearence.
I feel like it is VERY likely Amelia and Fred did end up on the island however if it was inhabitated within a year of their crash landing wouldn't the inhabitants have found her plane and their bodies?

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64780&highlight=amelia+earhart
 
Thanks for pointng me to the other thread gaia, maybe the mods can move this or just delete it when they get time.

It would seem any inhabitants would have found something. If they did, they may have gotten rid of the plane and buried any bones, and no stories passed down over 72 years.
 
When I was about 10 years old, I read a biography on Amelia Earhart (I am 59 now, LOL). I did book reports on her. My granddaughter has also and we share the interest in Amelia Earhart.

I seriously hope that we are on the verge of finding out once and for all what actually happened to her!
 
Hello all. Just to add to the mystery, or maybe explain some of it, here are my personal observations.

From 1974 to 1976 I was stationed on Saipan in the US Coast Guard at the Coast Guard Loran Station. I arrived there as an 18 year old from New Jersey, and was somewhat interested in the WWII island history since my uncle had been a Coast Guard coxwain on one of the landing crafts that put Marines on the beach when the invasion began.

While I was stationed there I was shown a memorial stone that had Amelia Earhart's name on it with an inscription, can't remember what the inscription said or even if it was in English, but I did see it and I just confirmed that is was seen by one of my other shipmates as well. I also married a local Saipanese girl and had asked my mother-in-law if Amelia Earhart was actually buried where the stone was, and she said that she had been buried there. My mother in law (now deceased) was born in 1916 so she would have been in her early 20's during this time period. It didn't mean too much to me back in 1975 because I just assumed that Earhart was buried there and that was all there was to it. But it does mean something now, with the new movie supposed to be splashing the silver screen this Friday. I just ordered the latest paperback publication of the book of her disappearance and intend to watch the movie.

I've done some extensive research to determine if anyone has ever mentioned seeing or excavating the memorial in Saipan, but I have found none, with the exception of my shipmates who have also seen the memorial.

Next time I go back to Saipan, I may just see if I can find that thing. I vaguely remember where it was but things have changed so much out there (commercial development) it may be impossible at this point.

If anyone has heard that the memorial stone that I refer to has already been investigated, let me know and I'll apologize for wasting your time.
 
It's being reported this morning that in the spring of 2009, About 20 staffers from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute took part in a hush-hush search for Amelia's Electra in the Pacific near her last reported position. No wreckage or other evidence of what happened to Amelia or her navigator, Fred Noonan, was discovered; however, members of the expedition still deem it a success because of the scientific information compiled and discoveries made along the way, including a new species of deep-water fish and the mapping of about 2,500 nautical square miles of the ocean floor. The expedition used two autonomous underwater vehicles, nicknamed Ginger and MaryAnn, to sweep the ocean floor.

Its good to see that this mystery is still generating interest within scientific circles.
 
shadowangel said:
...George Noory, on his Coast to Coast AM late-night radio show, has discussed at length the phenomenon of military broadcasts in the South Pacific being picked up thousands of miles away---even though those same broadcasts were not heard by stations much closer. ...
The last radio transmissions from Amelia will always be a major point of contention in the mystery. The Electra had been outfitted with a directional loop antenna, which at that time were very new. Some involved in the investigation have stated the belief that Amelia was unfamiliar with the operation of the antenna. Ive also read that Amelia and Noonan made the decision to cut their 'hanging wire" antenna, as they did not want to reel the cable in after each use.
Click to expand...

Today we have handheld cell phones with internal antennas which can link us to satillites and back down to anywhere on earth. But back in Amelia Earhart's day, Aircraft and ships used High Frequency or HF radios for communication. This meant the need for a long wire antenna, and often for the use of Morse Code rather than voice signals.

In modern aircraft such as a C-130, the HF radio antenna is a long wire which stretches from the front top of the aircraft to the tip of the vertical stabilizer (the top of the tail). Amelia's plane was not as long as a C-130, and to get the necessary length on the HF radio, they had to trail the wire out behind the plane. Because of the possibility of entangling it in the tail or wing controls, they may have elected to jettison it after each use.

The comment about Amelia's signals being picked up by distant stations but not by closer ones is very typical of HF radio transmission theory. HF signals bounce off the Ionosphere at night time and can be picked up as "sky waves" by distant stations because these signals tend to "skip", hitting some places and missing others.

Close stations can pick up the HF signal via "ground waves" which have not bounced off the ionosphere. Because of static, voice signals would often be attenuated to the point of not being understood, while Morse Code - a series of dots and dashes could be more easily picked up even through static and at greater distances.

The directional antenna mentioned is not for transmitting, but rather for receiving signals and for navigational purposes. Looking at a photo of Amelia's Electra aircraft, one can clearly see this antenna. It is a ring or loop on a stick extending downward from the nose of the aircraft. It works like the old AM radios which had to be turned to pick up a stronger signal. When turned to pick up the maximum signal strength, you could get a relative bearing from the aircraft to the transmitting station. Knowing the location of the station, you could draw on your chart/map a reciprocal bearing which would go through your projected track, thus giving you a line of position. A pilot could turn into that bearing/signal and fly to the station IF that was the destination.

Unfortunately, it was easy to get a "Back Bearing" or a reciprocal bearing reading on the ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) antenna because the loop could get a reading on either side of the loop of equal strength. Thus, if the station was 90 degrees from your position, it might also be read incorrectly as the reciprocal of 90 degrees, which would be 270 degrees.

Some investigators theorized that Amelia may have thought that she had a back bearing and was running in different directions to see if she could resolve the problem and get a good bearing to home on before running out of fuel.
 
Interesting that this topic came up, because just last night my husband and I were watching a program that concluded that most likely Amelia & her navigator crashed on Gardner (re-named N_____(?sp)) Island because she ran out of gas before she reached her destination of Howell Island. These researchers appeared very credible because they have been researching her for many years. They interviewed the woman in Florida who was a teenager and heard Amelia's distress calls back in 1937 and had taken extensive notes, and explained how the signals could have bounced off the atmosphere and that Amelia was using a very powerful radio to transmit. They found the coordinates from where her plan most likely went down- also they spotted a plane tire in a photo in that location of a coral reef-and spotted some wire under the surface, but their G.P.S. got destroyed by getting too close to their boat's propeller, so they couldn't go back to find it. They also found a skeleton whose bones were the same height Amelia would have been and artifacts like the penknife aboard her plane, a woman's shoe, a sextant, glass bottles for hand lotion, and a woman's compact, and an American-made metal zipper from the 1930's.(Amelia was known to carry make-up with her in case of press conferences). That sealed the deal for me...
They concluded that because of several campfires with fish and other animal bones that Amelia and her navigator died of dehydration or other natural causes.
 
gaia227 said:
I look forward to hearing your input as you have followed her life and kept up with her disappearence.

I was looking at a big picture of her today and was struck at how stunning she was. Judging from the pics it appears she was very tall.

She is a very interesting woman regardless of her mysterious end. She was a real trailblazer in aviation and more importantly in what was acceptable for a female in the 20's and 30's. She did not let convention keep her down. I have a lot of respect for her. She was definitely her own woman.
Click to expand...
She was 5'7".
 
LinasK said:
Interesting that this topic came up, because just last night my husband and I were watching a program that concluded that most likely Amelia & her navigator crashed on Gardner (re-named N_____(?sp)) Island because she ran out of gas before she reached her destination of Howell Island. These researchers appeared very credible because they have been researching her for many years. They interviewed the woman in Florida who was a teenager and heard Amelia's distress calls back in 1937 and had taken extensive notes, and explained how the signals could have bounced off the atmosphere and that Amelia was using a very powerful radio to transmit. They found the coordinates from where her plan most likely went down- also they spotted a plane tire in a photo in that location of a coral reef-and spotted some wire under the surface, but their G.P.S. got destroyed by getting too close to their boat's propeller, so they couldn't go back to find it. They also found a skeleton whose bones were the same height Amelia would have been and artifacts like the penknife aboard her plane, a woman's shoe, a sextant, glass bottles for hand lotion, and a woman's compact, and an American-made metal zipper from the 1930's.(Amelia was known to carry make-up with her in case of press conferences). That sealed the deal for me...
They concluded that because of several campfires with fish and other animal bones that Amelia and her navigator died of dehydration or other natural causes.
Click to expand...


I think the group you are referring to is TIGHAR. Here is their website. It has a lot of info regarding their research into Amelia's disappearence.

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Overview/AEhypothesis.html
 
Link

Amelia Earhart's Finger Bone Recovered?
A tiny bone fragment collected on a remote tropical island could be turtle -- or it could belong to the legendary pilot, researchers say.

By Rossella Lorenzi
Fri Dec 10, 2010 09:25 AM ET

THE GIST

* A bone fragment found on a remote island in the Pacific is being investigated as possible remains of Amelia Earhart.
* Initially researchers believed it was turtle bone.
* Only DNA testing can confirm whether the fragment is, in fact, human.



bone-fragment-278x225.jpg


Turtle or human bone? Researchers recovered the fragment from a remote island in the Pacific Ocean where, they believe, Amelia Earhart may have perished as a castaway. Click to enlarge this image.
Courtesy of Ric Gillespie/ Tighar


earhartp.jpg
turtle3_web.jpg



I'm sorry, but I just don't see any resemblance. :waitasec:
 
Thanks, Dark Knight. I had wondered what happened with the results of this testing, but thought I must have missed it in the news. Maybe her fate is not meant to be known...
 
I personally think it's her. I've read all I could get my hands on over the years, and I believe the person whose father (I think it was?) was listening to the radio that night and said he heard her. That she had crashlanded or something like that near that island. He relayed the info to LE at the time but nothing ever came of it.

I'll search for the story...

ETA: I found it - but it wasn't the person's father, it was a girl who had heard it and told her father.

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Notebook/notebook.html
 
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