See the Star Trek Voyager episode: Amelia was kidnapped by aliens.
11
I think some mysteries, like this one and the Loch Ness monster, are better left unsolved. It's food for the imagination. Knowing everything can be impoverishing.
11
For the cranky types who resent this endeavor, did you feel this way about searching for the Titanic? Was the discovery of King Tut’s tomb a waste? Will finding her plane change the world? No. It’s one of those mysteries that fascinate some of us. The discovery would be a wondrous thing, something to marvel at. What a welcome relief that would be.
24
More than 30 years ago, before my son was born, I read that one can count on stories about Amelia and the Loch Ness monster during slow news periods, every August through September.
I wish we still lived in such quaint times.
14
Sounds like a scam. How much money did they grift off of this anyway?
1
@Bob Jack -- It's a hobby. Ballard and other like-minded millionaires enjoy this sort of thing and have the money to indulge their interests. It's harmless.
29
There is so much conflicting misinformation about Amelia Earhart that accuracy is nearly impossible.
My theory is that the photo of Amelia and Fred on the dock is accurate with the Japanese ship and the Electra plane wreckage on the barge.
The Japanese detained them and either executed them or they died in captivity.
Both the Japanese and American governments are aware of what happened.
12
So now they are looking on the island for evidence of mitochondrial DNA. Maybe they should be focusing on a search for the existence of midichlorians instead, they might have just as much luck. Either way, may the Force be with them.
1
It is difficult for some to understand the fame and public attention that Earhart enjoyed. It was like the Kardashians - except with meaning and purpose. And I should think that the group that has done the heavy lifting in the search for Amelia over decades deserves more from the NYTimes than a barely one-line mention, and getting their name right. It's The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), led by Richard (Ric) Gillespie.
17
Amelia sleeps under thousands of fathoms of deep blue ocean. That’s all we need to know.
1
Most of the comments posted here about this fascinating story makes me weep for the human race.
25
The failure to find the modern airliner MH370 after 15 years of intensive searching, does not offer much hope that Earhart's plane will be found.
8
@Lawrence
Malaysian Airlines #370 disappeared in March, 2014. Five years ago, not fifteen.
10
@Lawrence
MH370 disappeared in 2014, not 2004. I take it that "15 years" was a typo?
2
What a waste of time and money. Instead of sailing around playing with their toys and making narcissistic claims about how this voyage has a purpose other than getting their names in headlines, why not use their boat to haul a few tons of plastic trash out of the sea?
21
For those calling for a search for MH370 instead of Earhart's plane, both can be done and perhaps even one search can help inform the other. Persistence, improved search techniques and equipment will find both.
14
I’ve been following this story over a number of years. Nothing terribly compelling has ever been found in this location but Tighar has always made the case for another expedition.
Ballard’s search should be the definitive test of hypothesis. Time for Tighar to close the case.
4
Closure soon for Amelia and her many fans.
1
I have no problem with this type of exploration, done by pros., not involving tax payer's money and properly insured.
What I do have a problem with are irresponsible thrill seekers/world record wannabes who do stupid stunts etc. who get into trouble and get killed or need the tax payer under Uncle Sam to bail them out.
7
@Paul
If I remember correctly from the article a few months ago, this expedition was funded by the National Geographic Society.
4
@Paul The search for Amelia was the largest and most expensive search and rescue operation up until that time, 1937. It even involved an aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington. Five days after Earhart's disappearance, seaplanes catapulted from the battleship, USS Colorado, searched Nikumaroro, and found nothing.
3
There are parallels between the search for Amelia Earhart and the search for five US Navy Avengers lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Both occurred in the same era, and both utilized radio direction finder evidence collected from three sources. Searches like these capture the imagination and the stories take us back to a simpler time when flying was still an adventure.
16
And here's to the two agronomists at the Institute For Grass and their work on attempting to locate the pants worn by Mr X and match the grass stains.
Yeah, a plane is somewhere. The problem is that 'somewhere' encompasses a lot of where.
1
For all the dubious naysayers who think think searching for Amelia Earnhardt is a grand waste, I feel a bit sorry for you. For the rest of us, we love a good story that brings both joy and profound sense of loss by connecting us to a simpler more adventurous and romantic past. Amelia was a great gal from our heartland who risked it all to trace a silver thread around our planet. But after completing an amazing 25 legs with only three legs left to encircle the world, her silver thread pierced the blue water somewhere between Lau and Howland or if Noonan was even a tiny bit of course then somewhere just north or south of Howland at the limit their fuel. Search in those places. Please keep searching!! Some of us romantics would be thrilled for closure.
83
What an obscene waste of money! The plane never made it to its destination, it obviously crashed. How will anyone’s life be enhanced by finding a few bits of rusty metal? The real story here is why do people become so fixated on something of no consequence.
16
@Mark Bau. It is human nature to ask questions, to probe, to explore, and to seek knowledge for its own sake. These things of "no consequence" are what brought humanity out of caves and onto the moon.
In any case, this effort isn't funded by taxpayer dollars. It's a private initiative by the National Geographic Society. Paying readers of that publication (including me) will be thrilled to read about Ballard's efforts, even if he didn't find anything this time.
118
@Mark Bau It's not your money, is it?
21
@Mark Bau Readers like myself depend on this kind of journalism to distract us from the miserable reality of our country's politics.
55
Not sure why the obsession of finding Amelia Earhart's plane still lingers.
Shouldn't such effort be spent on finding a far more recent disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Boeing 777 with FAR MANY MORE victims than Amelia Earhart and her navigator???
12
@S. Roy
I don't know that MH370 will ever be found, there is simply too much ocean to search, and not enough points of reference to begin. However, this story from The Atlantic gives an extremely good description of what probably happened:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/
5
Amelia Earhart landed safe and sound at the intersection of Tujunga Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood California!
3
@AZ SheltonSaladin Sad! After wandering the world she's left gazing at a dental center and a lot of traffic.
1
Why not look for MH370? Seems a bit more important.
4
Like every death, hers was a personal tragedy. But the "mystery" was the best possible way to ensure her fame. She's the one woman aviator from the time whose name is still a byword, even thought there were other--and better--women in the in air.
Like Jean Batten. You've probably never heard of her, mainly because she always landed where she planned.
25
Jean Batten was a pioneering New Zealand aviatrix. We know her name down here because her Percival Gull monoplane hangs from the ceiling at Auckland International Airport. She was a real inspiration.
8
A solo flight from England to NZ in 1936. Not too shabby.
6
There is one Earhart hypothesis with tangible, diagnostic evidence; the East New Britain (ENB) theory. In April 1945 an Australian Army infantry patrol found an aircraft in the ENB jungle while performing reconnaissance against the Japanese.
One of the engines had an aircraft construction number etched on a tag that was taken by the patrolmen. This unique number and some other identifying data was written down on a map that was taken home by one of the patrolmen at the end of the war.
Decades later the map was found to have the aircraft construction number (not registration number that’s on the wing) unique to only one aircraft; Earhart’s Electra.
There is much supporting evidence in the Australian War Memorial archives. This hypothesis is often dismissed out of hand due to several false assumptions about Earhart’s radio transmissions and her fuel consumption rate.
Serious researchers and aircraft experts will likely be surprised by the compelling data presented on the earhartsearchpng.com website.
David Billings, an aircraft engineer and key proponent of this hypothesis, elegantly explains how the Electra could have made it to ENB, Papua New Guinea.
The Ballard expedition would be wise to study the ENB hypothesis with an open mind before spending more funding searching the ocean.
52
Ballard has no interest in finding Amelia Earhart - once he does, the gravy train goes off the rails and his “career,” such as it is, goes with it.
You definitely raise some fascinating possibilities.
4
@Robin Shwetzer -
East New Britain is the jungle hinterland behind Rabaul. Fortress Rabaul, that major Japanese air and naval base adjacent to the Solomon Islands.
Fortress Rabaul was the very hub of Japan’s South Pacific battlefront, active nearly two years. That area is littered with many many hundreds of aircraft wrecks.
The distance between Fortress Rabaul and Howland Island might well be more than 1,500 miles. If Fred Noonan, her navigator, made a plotting mistake of that magnitude their plane might well have crashed in Antarctica.
7
Not a complete failure, we no where the plane isn't. I'll remember that next time I lose my car keys.
15
@sdt I laughed at those words. My 6th grade paper on a person we call a hero was on Amelia Earhart. At some point committing to such an intensive and expensive operation should be weighed in comparison to lives that can be saved or something that can make a difference.
Personally, I hope they never find that plane.
I grow weary of our computer age claiming to have an answer for every question. For me, I love the mystery of Earhart's disappearance. I don't need it explained. Heaven forbid!
13
Ballard had a tough time finding the Titanic, which was huge, in an area whose coordinates were known precisely. Earhart was flying a plane that was tiny, and where she went down, nobody knows. And even in the unlikely event that someone finds where she died, what does it matter? This is a lot of wasted time, energy, and money for no good purpose. People need to get out of this loop.
23
I remember in the comments to the last Times article about this expedition, several seemingly knowledgeable people stating there was zero chance Ballard would find anything. Looks like they were right.
5
The search for Emilia is like opening Al Capone’s safe expecting to find something valuable inside.
My suspicion is, she flew into a local atmospheric disturbance like a squall-line of thunderstorms at night, something I experienced myself (admittedly at sea level aboard a containership). It’s hard to describe just how empty that corner of the world is even now and she flew through it nearly a century ago. She would have had no way of knowing about weather trouble ahead at night until it engulfed her, save for observing distant lightning flashes dead ahead. Turning away to avoid those might have unwittingly sent her into the center of the approaching line.
Had she unwittingly flown into a squall line corkscrew wind gusts could have severely damaged her aircraft before she could fly through — possibly even tearing off a wing before she could react. If something like that happened there would be no way to recover. She would have plunged like a rock into the Pacific.
So the search area could be as large as 100,000 square miles; 7,000 - 12,000 feet deep. But, even if you could narrow it down to a few hundred square miles (how?), after nearly ninety years underwater what's left to find? Probably two wheels and wheel assemblies, some engine blocks, the rest of the wreck not much bigger than a few breadboxes, everything scattered across 20 square miles.
11
“Amelia”. Sorry.
6
@Steve Singer If you spent just a few minutes researching Amelia's disappearance, you'd know that strong radio signals were received near Amelia's landing site -- Howland Island -- at the expected date and time of arrival. These are definitive proof that her plane did arrive close to her intended landing site. So she came close to successfully completing the fatal leg of her trip but could not spot the small island as she circled around at low altitude. Her final radio transmissions indicated that she was circling at low altitude, looking for Howland Island, but was running out of fuel. The flight's demise was due to running out of fuel.
8
@SalinasPhil -
So they say. Only, I’m not so sure that they actually know. Whoever “they” are ... .
Urban legends never die or fade away. They just get more convoluted over time — and never, ever die no matter how often they are debunked; that sort of thing. So I am skeptical about radio transmissions, especially from that part of the world. It could qualify as a contender for The Empty Quarter. How do I know? Because I’ve been out there.
It also might interest you to know that I actually saw Howland “in the flesh”, admittedly at a 2-mile distance. What did it look like? “Harsh” would be my first word-choice. No bed of roses. No oasis. Waterless. Uninhabited. A nesting site for seabirds.
Howland has been probed, picked apart and over by numerous search parties numerous times looking for bits and pieces — anything, really — proving that she was there; anything at all. As I recall nothing definitive was ever found. Does that mean she didn’t crash-land there or nearby?
No, but I don’t know.
Did the Japanese rescue, imprison and later kill her?
Maybe. But again, I don’t know.
I’m a great believer in Occam’s Razor: the simplest, most straightforward explanation is also the most likely. Most Earhart theories are complicated, why I stand by my original thesis: lost at sea.
5
The things I've come to have the most interest in are various chapters in the search saga, more than the hoped for result.
To me, the examination of the perforated aluminum "patch", photographic study to assess whether the undercarriage radio antenna snapped at takeoff from Lae, and analysis of the claimed audible post-ditching radio distress calls are more intriguing as processes in and of themselves than the eventual discovery of aircraft wreckage would be.
I'm a bit concerned about the Tighar analysis of the Bevington photo. It feels as though the information is being formed and shaped to fit a dearly favored interpretation.
7
When I was a teenager in the early 1960s, one of my relatives came to visit for a few days. She had an Amelia Earhart branded suitcase. It looked fairly new, not from the 1930s.
I could never figure out how, after her disappearance, anyone would buy Amelia Earhart luggage. Sort of like buying a JFK Lincoln convertible.
20
@RM so funny! I had a set of that luggage, it was a bright orange-salmon color. I guess I felt safe as I was a passenger, and not the pilot?!
4
Why is the disappearance of Amelia Earhart viewed as a mystery? The above article provides a National Geographic link ("Expedition Amelia') that contains a promotional video clip about Amelia Earhart. One of the people on the clip is Candace Fleming, author of the book, Amelia Lost. She states that Amelia's disappearance "is the greatest mystery of the 20th century." Really? What about mysteries of the atom, the universe, human origins and much more?
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were flying from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island, about 2200 nautical miles. They never arrived on July 2, 1937. That was also the fate of many American airmen in larger aircraft flying from Point A to Point B across the vastness of the Pacific during World War II. So many were lost due to fuel exhaustion, poor navigation, etc. Where did they go down and is their loss viewed as such a great mystery that ships still search for them today?
15
What happened to the box of 13 bones sent in 1940 to Fiji from Nikumaroro atoll (then Gardner Island) for primitive forensic analysis? The box of bones and an empty jar of Dr. Berry's Freckle Ointment and one woman's shoe, size 6, with Cat's Paw Heel were "misplaced" in Fiji? Did Ms. Earhart's bones disappear?
If Amelia Earhart was "misplaced" in Nikumaroru, perhaps Bob Ballard and his Nautilus people (is he really Captain Nemo?) can find out what happened to her. Amelia's Lockheed Electra 10E wasn't the Titanic and she undoubtedly went down with her plane on that July 2,1937 on her long lap with Fred Noonan her navigator from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island.
Maybe Noonan's map was incorrect by a few too many miles in the South Pacific? Maybe they missed Howland?Wondering, too, if the Japanese discovered her after her plane fell out of the sky in 1937? Not all disappearances and mysteries can be solved. But we've been looking forward for a very long time to some answers to one of America's most abiding mysteries.
12
There is a photo in this article via the National Geographic which says, Amelia Earhart in December, 1937. Given that she crashed and died five months before the photo was taken, I think she looks great.
8
The man is employed by URI-GSO and never gives a single bit of credit or favor to the institution. He isn’t an “oceanographer”. He’s a greedy rich old man who wants to explore to find himself more fame. Wasted money that could be going to bigger issues in oceanography than where Earhart went down.
19
I hope Dr. Ballard finds Emilia.
And then the Malaysian Airliner - to me, it's a real mystery.
First, it happened during my life.
And given the modern avionics - for as large an airplane to disappear without any clues - simply incredible.
One request to NYT. - next time you report on a search - please give us a link or tell us where and why she was flying etc.
7
I have partially solved the Amelia Earhart mystery. They say she disappeared on July 2, 1937 never having made it to Howland Island. Yet, in the above piece there is a photograph "via National Geographic" dated December, 1937 of her at the controls of her Electra 10E. Some will say that the photo has been mislabeled but that's a copout. How can the National Geographic Society be wrong? I can't wait for the fame and notoriety to start flowing my way after this amazing discovery.
9
There have been numerous reports over the years about two white pilots - a man and woman - held by the Japanese on Saipan after Earhart disappeared. They were allegedly executed after a few days.
A photo that received some publicity in 2017 was debunked but accounts by others support such an account.
Earhart and Noonan may have been doing reconnaissance work for the US Navy making the incident something of an embarrassment for the US if they were captured by the Japanese.
Spying by Earhart would have been considered a provocation at the time - when the US was far from prepared for a war with Japan. Even if not engaged in such work, she and Noonan may have been viewed with suspicion by the Japanese.
IF this is all true and the Japanese recovered the plane without making that fact public, a major diplomatic incident would have been well under way with no easy resolution.
It would be 'inconvenient' and embarrassing for this to come out - Japan taking the pair prisoner and the US 'abandoning' Earhart and Noonan to Japan.
It is far easier for Earhart to remain lost. People will continue to search in vain for a plane that was disposed of long ago.
15
@cynicalskeptic Maybe the plane is in Area 51 oh, please enough of the fake conspiracy theories leave those to Trump. Jim Trautman
19
I decided to read the Wikipedia article. Sad to say but it's a lot more elucidating than press pieces that, advertently or not, are built around one iconic searcher and a theory that he's heavily invested in.
8
"It turned up other items from a castaway’s existence at the camp, but never any bones or DNA."
So, I am curious, who was that castaway? If he/she was never resued there would be a skeleton. If rescued, there must be a record somewhere. One contributor to this column (below) claims his father was stationed on that island with others during WW II. If that can be corroborated then the scene (a) has been contaminated and (b) if Earhart and Noonan were there, the Coast Guard contingent most likely would have found evidence of their presence shortly after their arrival.
I'd say it would be important to check with the Coast Guard. His father's recollection should be verified.
6
The question I have is: why are we looking for her? Leave the poor woman alone. Her record speaks for itself. If bones or her plane are found, how does that change anything? Will we look at Amelia Earhart any differently? Why are we so spellbound by a footnote in history? Why do we need to know?
16
@Rick Morris Maybe you're not interested but plenty of other people are, and that's why they're looking for her. Not so hard to understand, I hope.
13
The search for Amelia Earhart is important to satisfy our curiosity. However, it would be great if Ballard could devote some time to a search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It is a far larger target with, admittedly, a far larger number of suspect areas to search.
The emotional reward for living friends and relatives would be greater. Possibly there would be a financial reward to offset costs as well as the reward if the orange black boxes can be made to speak, they will most likely confirm the only logical theory, namely, the Captain did it.
If that is confirmed, I believe we will see new security measures implemented to protect the flying public from the one in a hundred thousand chance of a rogue crew member. We have already seen it happen with German Wings.
27
@Barry Borella The suspect areas of the Indian Ocean many uncharted but are estimated to be 15 miles deep and similar to the Grand Canyon in topographic terms. I don't know the limitations of existing search technology however future expeditions will be searching for a lot longer than that for Ms. Earhart.
2
If Earhardt were alive she'd be 122....She is long dead of course. Out somewhere in the ocean. Her adventurousness and single mindedness are all that remain. That's plenty. If she were to be found what would be have? A rusty few bits of metal.....
8
There are reports from natives on Saipan concerning two white pilots - a woman and man - in custody on Saipan after Earhart went missing.
If Earhart and Noonan were captured by the Japanese in 1937, there is nothing to find. Such an event would have be an embarrassment to both nations at the time. All evidence of it would have been eliminated.
17
@cynicalskeptic There were many more than a few reports that Earhart, Noonan, and her plane ended up on Saipan. These reports have been documented since the 1960s, starting with CBS newsman Fred Goerner. That theory has struck me as being more substantially documented than TIGHAR's theory. I think more information and perhaps answers on her disappearance are in the confidential archives of Japan and the USA.
5
It’s weird - I’m fascinated but I cannot articulate exactly why. I think it’s in the human psyche to want to solve mysteries.
21
One understands that Ballard is a scion of a wealthy, prominent WASP dynasty. And has to carry on the White Man's burden somehow. But aren't there more compelling and worthy challenges facing the planet and mankind than what became of another long-dead child of privilege and publisher Putnam's wife?
10
There needs to be a toning down of the hype surrounding the long lost Amelia Earhart. The above article provides a National Geographic link ("Expedition Amelia') that contains a promotional video clip about Amelia Earhart. One of the people on the clip is affiliated with the Amelia Birthplace Museum. Referring to the uniqueness of female pilots in the 1930s she states: " Women didn't drive cars back then much less fly airplanes." This is simply not true. My late mother drove cars during the 1930s and her folks struggled throughout the Great Depression. Also, my aunt of a similar age and economic status, drove cars in the 1930s. It really was not uncommon for women to drive cars back then.
There is no need to exaggerate Amelia Earhart. Her aviation and inspirational achievements stand solidly on their own.
34
The great unanswered questions of modern American history remain:
-- Did the Babe really call that shot?
-- Was the man on the grassy knoll Ted Cruz’s father?
-- What became of Judge Crater, Jimmy Hoffa, D.B. Cooper, Amelia Earhart and the Zodiac Killer?
-- What’s going on at Area 51?
-- Did America really land on the moon?
-- Is Trump a Martian bent on our destruction?
Congress and American voters will be answering that last one
in due course.
63
@A. Stanton
I believe that Trump is a Martian bent on our destruction. Best theory yet.
38
@Barry Borella
If Trump is a Martian, perhaps we will have also solved the mystery of why "Mars Needs Women".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Needs_Women
20
@Padfoot
It also answers the question "Is there intelligent life on Mars"?
Answer: "Yes, after Trump's departure to destroy civilization on the planet Earth."
19
“This plane exists...It’s not the Loch Ness monster, and it’s going to be found.”
Selection and confirmation bias are real. Congratulations to Dr. Bollard on this remarkable finding.
3
@ubique Yes, in Area 51! Jim Trautman
2
Amelia Earhart disappeared July 2, 1937 but one of photographs in this piece show her at the controls of an aircraft in December, 1937.
Regarding Nikumaroro and having lived and flown in the South Pacific, I have always frowned at the notion that she and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro. IF she had landed on that reef, and IF she had landed intact, and IF those unverified HF radio transmissions that some claim to have heard had occurred over a period of days, then at some point as the water was rising (due to a Spring Tide?) she and Fred would have realized that help might not be arriving soon. Accordingly, they would begin cannibalizing airplane parts and bringing them ashore for survival purposes. Although Amelia did not work for anyone, Fred had worked for Pan American and would have received survival training even in the 1930s. I went through such training many times. The engine cowlings and other shiny aluminum parts could have been removed and laid upon the beach as a signal for the US Navy seaplanes that eventually would fly over Nikumaroro a few days later. Fred's navigation table, the airplane seats and so much more could have aided survival. And before she lay dying on Nikumaroro she could have etched her name and details on a piece of aluminum and wedged it into a tree.
37
It seems every two years when Tighar requires more funding another fantastic discovery is made. As I remember two years ago they had border collie human cadaver dogs on the island found nothing it was to hot. It would have to be now female bones being pushed since Noonan had no known relatives to match DNA. Groups come up with theories and even when no evidence have to continue on can't admit might be wrong. There was as a I remember years ago a cold cream jar, what ever happened to that DNA since if it was hers should have been there. The new edition of my book the Pan American Clippers - The Golden Age of Flying Boats just out, when my late wife and I did the original research in 2006 at the Univ. of Miami - Richter Library where the official Pan Am archives are we were asked to see if a letter about how Noonan left Pan Am was there. We found none, Fred did have a drinking problem. She refused to have a trailing aerial placed on the aircraft like Charles Lindbergh and Ann Morrow did for their flights in 31 and 33. Aircraft was damaged overloaded and Putnam had her on a tight schedule. It was about marketing also clothes, makeup and she had mail sacks with first day covers sold for $5 each at Gimbels NYC. Amelia was not a great pilot Ann Morrow was better. She took chances and did not listen. I remember two years ago there was the photo of her and Fred turned out taken two years earlier of others. She came up short of Howland Island waste of time anywhere else. Jim Trautman
11
A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
Joni Mitchell
22
@richard wiesner
Hejira ..... nice reference
I listened to it this past Saturday evening
Kudos !
5
This obsession over Amelia Earhart's disappearance over-shadows her accomplishments because the focus remains
on her last adventure that ended in tragedy. At least she died doing what she loved best: flying and traveling the world, and inspiring women and a younger generation that they could accomplish almost anything if they worked hard, took risks, and remained true to themselves. Earhart encouraged people – especially women – to reach beyond arbitrary limits. Go read the biographies written about her and go read her journals. Celebrate who she was.
59
@Twg According to contemporaneous reports, she was a barely passable pilot who did not know how to navigate nor properly use a radio. What she had going for her were tomboy good looks and an aggressive promoter for a husband. She died attempting her latest stunt because speaking bookings were dropping and they were in financial trouble.
26
@Mtnman1963 You are wrong about that.
She was a more than able pilot with a lot of experience and many successful competitions under her belt. This all too common accusation is reflective of the misogyny that surrounds many historic women of high accomplishment. As for the money issue, that too is nonsense. I have never read any account that placed them in dire financial straits. Earhart earned money through many different venues. She and Putnam were dedicated to each other, and led a remarkable, highly adventurous, unconventional, and successful life.
16
@Mtnman1963 Great comment. There were other women pilots who were better, but did not have the husband providing PR outlets. Also not discussed is the flight originally started by way of Hawaii with a second navigator a Paul Mantz. Amelia crashed the aircraft in Hawaii it had to be returned to Burbank, Calif for repairs. Then the flight unannounced started and went the other way with only Noonan as the navigator. Amelia was a lazy pilot who did not want a trailing aerial or to learn morse code or other safety measures. It was a accident waiting to happen. Jim Trautman
13
not to fault the incredible mind and sheer oceanographic talent of Dr. Ballard, Ms. Ehrhardt's aircraft is overwhelmingly smaller than the Titanic, per se, and based on the amount of years it's been gone, if it is submerged in the ocean somewhere, besides things like the landing gear and engines, the aircraft is without question disintegrated highly and likely covered with decades of bottom sediment & debris ...that said, I'd love for him & his team to locate it !
19
@Marco
Ballard did find the remains of Kennedy's PT-109, a small wooden hulled vessel with various metal structures, off the Solomon Islands. During this attempt to find Amelia's Electra, he could easily detect metal from the Norwich City, a ship that went onto the Nikumaroro reef in 1929. He did comment that the debris field of the Norwich City illustrated that metal parts can still be detected 90 years later and that sedimentation rates are minimal. If the Electra is there at the very least its 930 pound engines should still be visible.
19
Although a bit disappointed the expedition failed to discover any validating artifacts that would resolve the mystery, it's a big ocean and Dr. Ballard's team is probably the best there is for such an effort, so I'll remain hopeful. I suspect the Tarawa skull fragments might be a wild hare, but with the relative ease and low cost of DNA analysis at this point a determination whether there is any relationship with Earhart's should be resolved quickly.
9
@Jim Vance Several years ago it was a cold cream jar Depression era like the cold cream she used. What ever became of that DNA should have been easy. Cadaver dogs two years ago found nothing. This is great like Nessie to bad they are looking in the wrong place. But, hey, wait in two years it will be some other major discovery. Jim Trautman
2
During WW2 my dad was stationed on Nikumaroro as part of a Coast Guard LORAN Station group. Before he died I asked him if he thought Amelia Earhart could have landed on his island just a few years earlier. He said it was impossible as they often walked the entire island and had a launch which they often used for patrolling the area. No evidence then and probably nothing now.
44
@Bill did you communicate that to TIGHAR or Dr. Ballard? Might be worth it.
10
@Bill You hit the nail on the head she and Fred are not there. When people get these theories they refuse even with all the evidence that they could be wrong. As the money flows so does the same theory. As you stated about your father there were lots of people on those island in the late 20's through the war years and yet, nothing. How about no one has found any Japanese documents to indicate she and Fred were ever there. Sadly, all these expeditions spent looking in the wrong place. Jim Trautman
9
@Chris
TIGHAR is a fraud and just keeps trying to keep their fundraising going. Just look at their record of this kind 'look over here!'.
5
It’s only a matter of time. The scientific tech and Ballard’s expertise (and patience) are in place. The wreckage is out there and, unlike Nessie, it’s not moving.
24
@Charles Dean That Malay flight MH370 is still missing after the largest search in history belies that.
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Having seen the photo with the smudge that the spy industry had enhanced, I'm not at all surprised nothing (so far) was found.
Those who were so expecting to see a landing gear and even matched a plane at the time were lead astray by hopes of being able to help solve this mystery. If something as obvious a landing gear were sticking up in the field of the camera it would certainly have been noticed by those there in person.
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