Link: Amelia Earhart May Have Survived Crash-Landing, Newly Discovered Photo Suggests

[dayhiker]

I watched this last night and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The biggest head scratcher to me was the steel wheeled things left behind on that atol. They kept arguing that they were used to transport the plane from one end of the atol to the other end. These were small diameter, thin wheels that are intended for steel tracks. It doesn't seem likely that they used tracks because if they had left the wheels behind, then they would have left the tracks behind too. How would these wheels have performed over sand and coral? How would they keep each pair of these wheels turned in the same direction since they weren't on tracks. That all seemed awfully fishy to me. The logic of how they came to be on that island seemed to make sense. They also had a lot of simultaneous circumstantial evidence all pointing in one direction. Any one tidbit of info wouldn't mean much, but together, it did build a case.

As far as the photo goes, it seems that all they really built is that each of the people resembled the people in question. Their proportions were correct and the overlays matched. Having two that simultaneously matched made it more likely that it was correct, but they still didn't prove it. Once they moved on, they continuously referred to the photo as if they were definitely the people in the photo. They're hoping the viewers forget that it might be the two people in the photo.

 

[RTR91]

I watched this last night and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The biggest head scratcher to me was the steel wheeled things left behind on that atol. They kept arguing that they were used to transport the plane from one end of the atol to the other end. These were small diameter, thin wheels that are intended for steel tracks. It doesn't seem likely that they used tracks because if they had left the wheels behind, then they would have left the tracks behind too. How would these wheels have performed over sand and coral? How would they keep each pair of these wheels turned in the same direction since they weren't on tracks. That all seemed awfully fishy to me. The logic of how they came to be on that island seemed to make sense. They also had a lot of simultaneous circumstantial evidence all pointing in one direction. Any one tidbit of info wouldn't mean much, but together, it did build a case.

As far as the photo goes, it seems that all they really built is that each of the people resembled the people in question. Their proportions were correct and the overlays matched. Having two that simultaneously matched made it more likely that it was correct, but they still didn't prove it. Once they moved on, they continuously referred to the photo as if they were definitely the people in the photo. They're hoping the viewers forget that it might be the two people in the photo.

We started watching about 30-40 minutes into it. Was pretty interesting to watch.

Like you said, one bit of the info they had wouldn't mean much, but all of it together started showing a case as to what might have happened. The secret note from the Department of State to the Ambassador in England was a little shocking. Then, the two Marines possibly digging up her grave.

 

[dayhiker]

We started watching about 30-40 minutes into it. Was pretty interesting to watch.

Like you said, one bit of the info they had wouldn't mean much, but all of it together started showing a case as to what might have happened. The secret note from the Department of State to the Ambassador in England was a little shocking. Then, the two Marines possibly digging up her grave.

I agree on both points. The total body of info taken together seemed pretty plausible. I liked how the pilot talked about initially he didn't believe she could wind up there. Then, when you take the wind speed and direction being different from forecast, and what her plan was if she didn't find the island into account, it then became probably that she would wind up in that place.

When they showed the 281 N Howland I immediately thought bearing instead of distance. When they showed that 281 was the compass reading from Howland to where they say she was, I was impressed.

 

[dvldog]

I thought it a little unusual that there were no Japanese military on the pier with their two prisoners. At least, it didn't appear so.

 

[RTR91]

The photo that this whole story is based on was taken after 1940, not 1937.

LINK

Has to be aliens with their time warp doohicky thingamabob. How else can yo explain it.

After 1940 you say? Well this Japanese blogger says it's from 1935. Link

Claims made in a US documentary that the pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart crash-landed on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean and was taken prisoner by the Japanese appear to have been proved false by a photograph unearthed in a travel book.

The History Channel documentary, Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, which aired in the US on Sunday, made the claim that the American and her navigator, Fred Noonan, ended up in Japanese custody based on a photograph discovered in the US national archives that purported to show them standing at a harbour on one of the islands.

The film said the image “may hold the key to solving one of history’s all-time greatest mysteries” and suggested it disproved the widely accepted theory that Earhart and Noonan disappeared over the western Pacific on 2 July 1937 near the end of their attempt at a history-making flight around the world.
But serious doubts now surround the film’s premise after a Tokyo-based blogger unearthed the same photograph in the archives of the National Diet Library, Japan’s national library.

The image was part of a Japanese-language travelogue about the South Seas that was published almost two years before Earhart disappeared. Page 113 states the book was published in Japanese-held Palau on 10 October 1935.

 

[Elefantman]

After 1940 you say? Well this Japanese blogger says it's from 1935. Link

Proof it was the aliens and their time warp doohicky thingamabob!

 

[Tidewater]

After 1940 you say? Well this Japanese blogger says it's from 1935. Link

I'd love to see the editors who published that "Earhart on a dock" photo and then found the photo was from 1935 in a book.
Nice research, guys.

 

[day-day]

Deniers going to deny!

 

[dayhiker]

Another point that I thought about was at some point in the show they were interviewing someone who claimed to have seen the plane. When asked what color it was, he didn't remember. Did he not remember the color of something, or did he not want to say because he'd only seen the plane in b&w photos?

 

[AUDub]

I'd love to see the editors who published that "Earhart on a dock" photo and then found the photo was from 1935 in a book.
Nice research, guys.

That's the History Channel for you.

I'll gladly go back to the era when they were the Hitler Channel. The only show I can stomach on there now is Modern Marvels.

 

[Tidewater]

Now, it appears they may have found EA's plane.
A cyclone blew through and shifted sand inside the lagoon. Then a satellite image saw something that looks promising.

It looks promising enough that Purdue is sending an expedition next November.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Now, it appears they may have found EA's plane.
A cyclone blew through and shifted sand inside the lagoon. Then a satellite image saw something that looks promising.

It looks promising enough that Purdue is sending an expedition next November.

One guy who's already been there says they found nothing when they were there and that what showed up is a palm tree...

 

[Tidewater]

One guy who's already been there says they found nothing when they were there and that what showed up is a palm tree...

The guy arguing for the Purdue trip says the last team was not looking for a plane under the silt in the lagoon so they did not find one. They were looking for a plane on the surface to the seabed, not under the silt.
This object was uncovered by a cyclone that recently went through there. This time, they will know pretty precisely where to look.
It could be a palm tree, but the other items found there give pause.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

The guy arguing for the Purdue trip says the last team was not looking for a plane under the silt in the lagoon so they did not find one. They were looking for a plane on the surface to the seabed, not under the silt.
This object was uncovered by a cyclone that recently went through there. This time, they will know pretty precisely where to look.
It could be a palm tree, but the other items found there give pause.

Obviously, I hope they do, but the last expedition found nothing except the cadaver-sniffing dogs they brought along did show hits...

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I hope the mystery is solved. But over the years, I’ve also seen a lot of reports that fizzled out.

Given the publicity they had to know would come, I’m hopefully skeptical (or skeptically hopeful?) on this one.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

The guy arguing for the Purdue trip says the last team was not looking for a plane under the silt in the lagoon so they did not find one. They were looking for a plane on the surface to the seabed, not under the silt.
This object was uncovered by a cyclone that recently went through there. This time, they will know pretty precisely where to look.
It could be a palm tree, but the other items found there give pause.

And that same storm could have blown a tree into the water as well. I'm skeptical until they are lifting the plane out of the water. Right now, I trust the researcher, Ric Gillespie, who has been to that spot over a blurry satellite image.

Which raises a question: why can I go to online maps and zoom in so far I can clearly see my cars in my driveway, but whenever "researchers" find something via satellites, it is always so blurry and zoomed out more? The image on Google Maps of Nikumaroro Island is so much clearer than the released image of the supposed plane. Maybe they should get a satellite that can take a higher resolution image to fly over the area before they go, it might just save them a wasted trip.

The Executive Director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, Richard Gillespie said he doubts the Purdue expedition will turn up any evidence of Earhart's plane on their upcoming expedition.

“We’ve looked there in that spot, and there’s nothing there,” he told NBC News.

Gillespie has launched a dozen expeditions over the last 35 years searching for Earhart, including searches of Nikumaroro. He said the satellite image guiding the Purdue expedition shows an overturned coconut palm tree with a root ball that had been washed up by a storm.

“I understand the desire to find a piece of Amelia Earhart’s airplane. God knows we’ve tried,” he said. “But the data, the facts, do not support the hypothesis. It’s as simple as that.”