Tag Archive for: Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart photo debunked

Blogger Debunks the Amelia Earhart Photo

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The photo purported by a recent History channel documentary to show Amelia Earhart was printed in a book two years before she vanished.

It’s been 80 years since Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished without a trace on the last leg of their attempt to circumnavigate the globe. While we’re always eager for new evidence that may finally solve the mystery, it seems the photo unveiled by Monday night’s History channel documentary “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence” is not it.

A researcher discovered the photo misfiled (definitely a conspiracy) in the National Archives. It depicts natives standing on a pier in the Marshal Islands, among them two blurry figures that may be American. In the water, a Japanese boat identified as the Koshu appears to be towing a barge carrying a plane resembling Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10-E Electra.

Throughout the special, experts examine the photo for authenticity and compare it to known photos of Earhart and Noonan. The result is a compelling narrative that reveals the duo were captured by the Japanese military in the Marshall Islands. Meanwhile, US intelligence did nothing for fear that the codebreaking efforts that allowed them to crack Japanese transmissions would be discovered.

This narrative is supported by claims the Marshall Islands natives have been making for years. The only problem is that by Tuesday, the morning after the documentary aired, a Japanese blogger’s quick search had already identified the photo as having been printed in a book in 1935, two years before Earhart’s final flight.

History channel responded to the claim on Twitter:

It was followed up with this:

Meanwhile, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has been continuing to investigate the theory that Earhart and Noonan made an emergency landing on an atoll in the Pacific where they eventually died. Last month TIGHAR lead an expedition to the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro, where bones believed to match Earhart’s measurements were found beneath a tree (and subsequently lost) in 1940.

The team brought four forensic dogs trained to detect the smell of human bones. They centered on an area identified in 2001 where excavations revealed evidence of an American castaway, such as glass jars, a woman’s compact, a jackknife, and the remains of campfires.

As soon as the dogs began working the site, National Geographic reported Friday, the dogs hit on a spot at the base of a ren tree where Earhart may have died.

They didn’t find any bones, but dirt was collected which may yield DNA samples for analysis.

Is this a photo of Amelia Earhart?

Newly Discovered Photo Suggests Amelia Earhart May Have Survived

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A photo from the National Archives seems to support the theory that Amelia Earhart was captured by the Japanese in 1937.
Amelia Earhart captured by the Japanese

A team of experts and forensic dogs are currently on an expedition to the island of Nikumaroro in hopes of sniffing out the bones of Amelia Earhart, but as NBC News reports, a new clue suggests they might not find anything…because Earhart survived.

A photo discovered in the National Archives seems to show Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan, both presumed dead after crashing somewhere in the Pacific Ocean 80 years ago on July 2, 1937. The photo, believed to be from 1937, is marked “Jaluit Atoll,” part of the Marshal islands.

Locals have been telling stories of seeing Earhart in the islands for years, many of which were written about by Fred Goerner in his book The Search for Amelia Earhart. In a recent article, researcher Dick Spink, who began investigating the Marshal islands after hearing these stories first hand, told The Japan Times he believes “Earhart and Noonan were then taken to Jaluit Atoll, then known as Nanyo, a mandated territory of Japan, where they were ushered aboard a tramp steamer called the Koshu Maru and transported to Saipan, the Electra towed behind on the barge.”

“The photo shows a Japanese ship, Koshu,” the NBC News article states, “towing a barge with something that appears to be 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart’s plane.”

There is no evidence of what may have happened to Earhart and Noonan after being captured, but the Japanese government denied having any record of it.

Photo shows Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan captured by the Japnese

The photo is the subject of an upcoming History channel special airing this Sunday called “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence.”

Update: Blogger debunk photo of Amelia Earhart

Forensic Dogs Will Be Used to Find the Remains of Amelia Earhart

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An expedition is heading to the island of Nikumaroro with bone-sniffing forensic dogs to search for the remains of Amelia Earhart.
Forensic dogs search for the remains of Amelia Earhart

TIGHAR (the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) has lead 12 missions in search of Amelia Earhart, who vanished 80 years ago on July 2, 1937 with her navigator Fred Noonan during their 29,000-mile flight around the world. No human remains have ever been found that could be positively identified as belonging to Earhart or Noonan. TIGHAR is hoping to change that when they embark on their latest mission with forensic dogs trained to sniff out bones.

Latest: Photo suggests Amelia Earhart survived

The expedition departs from Fiji on June 24 for the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro, known in Earhart’s time as Gardner Island. It is there, according to TIGHAR’s hypothesis, that Earhart and Noonan made an emergency landing after failing to locate their next refueling stop on Howland Island.

A piece of Amelia Earhart's plane
In 2014 a piece of debris from Earhart’s plane was positively identified by TIGHAR researchers.

There they used the aircraft’s radio to send distress signals, but the the signals had stopped by the time three Navy planes flew over the island a week later. By that time, TIGHAR surmises, the Electra had probably been swept off the the reef edge where it landed, so the search planes never saw it. They did note signs of “recent habitation,” but weren’t aware no one had lived on Nikumaroro since 1892.

“Earhart (and possibly Noonan) lived for a time as castaways on the waterless atoll,” according to TIGHAR, “relying on rain squalls for drinking water. They caught and cooked small fish, seabirds, turtles and clams. Amelia died at a makeshift campsite on the island’s southeast end. Noonan’s fate is unknown. Whatever remains of the Electra lies in deep water off the island’s west end.”

A British expedition arrived on Nikumaroro in 1938 in hopes of establishing an airfield. The temporary colony discovered 13 bones in 1940 that were lost after being shipped to Fiji to be studied. TIGHAR’S senior archaeologist Tom King told National Geographic, “There are 193 bones unaccounted for.”

Researchers believe they have located the site where those bones were found, so they plan to bring in the Human remains detection dogs from the Institute for Canine Forensics to search the area.

The island of Nikumaroro
The uninhabited island of Nikumaroro

Read more about the dogs and the challenges they will face right here.

Piece of Amelia Earhart’s Plane Identified

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A piece of aluminum debris that most likely belongs to Amelia Earhart's plane

For 77 years, the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in 1937, during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator, has persisted. While the details of her fate are still nothing more than conjecture, new research has identified what is almost certainly a piece of Earhart’s missing plane.

In 1991, a piece of aluminum debris known as Artifact 2-2-V-1 was discovered on the Kiribati island of Nikumaroro. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery has identified the debris (report here) as a patch installed on Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E during a stop in Miami before she vanished.

This means the theory that Earhart crashed into the Pacific Ocean is likely not the case. She may have run out of gas and remained stranded on Nikumaroro with her navigator Fred Noonan.

A search will be held in June of 2015 to investigate an “anomaly” off the coast of Nikumaroro that is the right size and shape to be the wreckage of Earhart’s plane. They will also be searching the surrounding reef for bits of wreckage, and the island itself for a evidence of a campsite.

via Discovery