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Subscribe to RSSIt's one of the most perplexing mysteries of our time – what happened to the famed aviator who set out to circle the globe? It's believed that her plane went down near a group of small islands in the Pacific; researchers are now planning to scan the depths of the ocean near where her plane may have crashed. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
AP file
This undated file photo shows Amelia Earhart. A new expedition is attempting to find the wreckage of the plane she flew in her attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937.
Seventy-five years after Amelia Earhart went missing over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to circumnavigate the globe, a new expedition will search the waters in hopes of resolving the longstanding mystery of what happened to the American aviation pioneer.
The Niku VII expedition will search the underwater reef slope off the west end of Nikumaroro, formerly Gardner Island, an uninhabited coral atoll in the Pacific, looking for signs of wreckage from Earhart’s Lockheed Electra.
The expedition is being led by Richard Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR (pronounced “tiger”), a Wilmington, Del.-based nonprofit group that promotes aviation archaeology and historic preservation.
“The primary search area is based upon the hypothesis that the aircraft landed safely on the reef and remained there for several days before being washed over the reef edge by rising tides and surf,” TIGHAR says on its website in explaining the mission. “Aircraft debris reportedly found and used by island residents in later years, and aircraft parts found by TIGHAR in the abandoned village strongly suggest that the aircraft broke up in the relatively shallow surf zone.”
Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in May 1932, when she took off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, and landed the next day in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
In March 1937, she attempted to fly around the world in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra, but a tire blew out during takeoff from Hawaii and she crashed.
After her plane was repaired, Earhart, then 39, set out on a second attempt from Miami in June 1937 with navigator Fred Noonan. They were on the last leg of the flight when the plane went down on July 2, 1937, while approaching Howland Island, a remote coral island in the central Pacific Ocean about 1,700 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu.
U.S. Coast Guard and Navy ships searched the area but turned up no sign of the crew or the plane. Earhart’s disappearance remains a mystery to this day.
Many researchers believe Earhart’s plane ran out of fuel and the pair ditched at sea. But other theories abound, with some conspiracy theorists suggesting Earhart was caught and held by the Japanese as a spy.
The expedition led by TIGHAR assumes that the pair reached Gardner Island, then a British possession, and survived for an unknown period of time.
Crews using underwater robots will search the waters with high-frequency sonar and take black-and-white photos down to a depth of nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), according to TIGHAR. The expedition will be able to examine sonar targets using high-definition video down to a depth of 3,300 feet (1,000 meters).
The object of the expedition is to locate, identify and photograph any wreckage found. There are no plans to recover any wreckage.
"What we're hoping for is to come back with good imagery, photographs, of wreckage that's conclusively, unquestionably pieces, at least, of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra aircraft; that's the goal," Gillespie told the BBC.
A documentary on the expedition will be broadcast on the Discovery cable television channel.
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Leave a Comment:
I can think of LOTS of things that would be better suited to spend money on - dead for 75 years, give me a break. Why not send that money to those in Colorado who just lost everything and have no insurance - I'm sure there are plenty of them who would appreciate the gesture.....
So, uh, WHY would an international historic aviation group use their money for that?
m-612920: Why would the US gov't spend $4.5 trillion and counting on two wars they cannot hope to win but not on needed domestic firefighting aircraft?
I hope that no taxpayer money was used for this project.
It's private money. It's up to the donors how they spend it. I hope that we learn the answer to this historical mystery. I also hope we learn why a skeleton found in 1940 on what was then Gardner's Island, with the skeletal measurements of a tall slim European woman, became "lost". I hate information control.
Hmmmm, make you wonder why Bob Ballard ever wasted all that time looking for the Titanic.?.?.?
Maybe it was because, just like Earhart, the Titanic was a great mystery to and very interesting to many people.
Finding and confirming remains of Earhart's aircraft is a career defining moment and would be worth millions in magazine, book rights, documentary and on the lecture circuit.
Good luck to them.
Inaccurate article- She left what is now the Civil Air Patrol Earhart Squadron (188) building at Oakland International Airport (KOAK) to circle the globe, once to the west, then the second attempt to the east (via Miami).
In other words, the 2nd attempt, just like the first, started in Oakland, not Miami.
I would think that at this point they might as well figure she went the way of Hoffa, Jesus, and Al Capone's Vaults.
Geraldo probably won't be there to interview the participants this time, as the world waxes and wanes into the sublime.
Sadly, this constitutes the arrival of my post here, as I melt away with the rest of you. Thinking that much like me, you probably could not care less and were just bored enough to read the story.
Sorry Michael, but she departed from Hialeah, not Miami, not Oakland. The actual place is occupied by the UPS distribution center in LeJeune Rd, right next to the park called... yeah, you're right: Amelia Earhart. There is even a dedication plaque on the UPS building.
Going to make big bucks on the Discovery channel. Last sentence of article.
I think it's a bit too late for a search and rescue mission.
Hate to disagree with all you guys but I have always been pretty fascinated with this story and would love to find out, in my lifetime, what happened to her.
kimH-1330542
Same here Kim. I wish them good luck!
Max^ 108, As a matter of fact, Federal funding did go to this expedition, so the answer is yes! I think it actually exceeded the search for D.B. Cooper back in the early seventies!
Justice- Incorrect, she left from Oakland, and the trip was scheduled to end in Oakland. Why fly around the globe almost? You wouldn't, you'd fly to where it started, which was Oakland. That leg and 3 others weren't publicized.
Miami was the 5th city on the trip, not the first.
Please read up on the flight before contradicting me.
Thank you.
i hope they find there bodies....that would clear up the mystery and they would recieve a proper burial after all these years..
One of TIGHAR's claims is that Earhart's remains were indeed already found, just before WW2, when human remains were found at a makeshift campsite at one end of the island. At that time at least some of the British Colonial officers thought that the remains were of Earhart. The remains were sent for forensic analysis (which denied that the remains were of Earhart, but this has since been re-evaluated) but then lost during the chaos of the Japanese advance through the Pacific in WW2.
Mike it is "Their bodies" not "there Bodies"
MIKE-679507===Do you actually think they will find any remains of bodies? It's been 75 years in tropical waters. Things tend to waste away after that amount of time. But hey if people believe in Obama and Hillary just maybe they can get in touch with the higher spiritual being and produce something out of this world.
Smokie, rumor is Obama actually sabotaged the plane.
THEIR yah go!
what a waste of money on these people, i thought she was found to be living in new york some years later and this fake crash was a hoax. this is not news here
Where in the world did you hear something like this? No, she was not living in New York and it was not a hoax.
Where do you get your news Bigdan?
Actually, Bigdan is referring to a real (although largely disregarded) theory.
There was a lady that looked quite a bit like Earhart that, very unwantedly became the center an entire conspiracy theory that purposed that SHE was actually Earhart.
However, this theory has just about as much reasonable support as the even more hilarious Faux-Paul theory.
Gee, what would we do without yet another conspirac theory - The crash was faked, and Amelia didn't die. I wonder who the conspirators are? Perhaps the grandparents of those who fabricated 9/11? The moon landings?
@Dan, is it your money? No?
Then STFU.
Irene Bolam lived in Monroe Twp., NJ in a senior development. My dad got to know her just a bit...and her secretary. Dad asked the secretary once if she thought Bolam was Earhart. The secretary, off the record, so to speak, felt they were one in the same. According to my Dad, the secretary felt if she wasn't Earhart, there was quite an effort put forth to give the impression she could be Earhart. Remember, this was prior to our involvement in World War ll...prior to the assault on Pearl Harbor. Lots and lots of "conspiracies" have come from that time period. Lots of "I thought you knew" and "When did they know?" There were reasons for secrets. And the paranoia! What a time!
Anyway, I am in my early 50's and I would like to know what happened. If they do find her remains, it wouldn't answer all the questions!
Fox news reported that Obama was responsible for the crash of the Electra. The bodies were recovered secretly and sent to a Muslim missionary run by his father in Kenya for disposal. All before Obama was born of course. It was and is the greatest of conspiracies.
offtheirheads===I doubt if Fox News came up with that but one thing is for sure Amelia and her friend Fred are dead. The State Department said that they would support this venture, that means money. To the disbelief of jkatze it is our money. Read a few more articles and you will find that the United States Navy is supporting the effort and logistical support. That means our tax dollars.
This is the make-or-break expedition for TIGHAR. They've found some remakable circumstantial evidence over the years which supports their hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikkumaroro. Now they need to find something indisputably from the Electra. An engine block would be nice, or maybe a wing spar or a gear leg. The whole fuselage is probably too much to ask for; 75 years is a long time for aluminum in salt water. But they've got to find something, or the whole hypothesis will come under renewed scrutiny.
If they are right, they should find something this trip. It would be like finding the Titanic all over again.
Actually, aluminum doesn't corrode in salt water. The plane should still be in the condition it was in when it crashed.
You are wrong aluminum does corrode by electrolysis in salt water with other metals near by. It does not corrode in fresh water.
I think you are both right. :)
Aluminum does corrode in salt water, but generally just on the surface of the object in question. If the object is thin and both sides are exposed, it could corrode away completely. On the other hand, if the object is thicker, it could just exhibit surface corrosion, and the sub-surface aluminum would remain intact.
It is hard to know what condition the Electra will be in. Areas of the thinnest aluminum may be gone, but thicker things like frames, ribs, spars, and so on, could be intact. I hope we get to find out.
If they find any wreckage, they should recover any with identifying marks for confirmation.
Duh.
Pieces of the inside of the Electra have already been found.
Still looking for wrong way noonan and his pilot?
GOOD LUCK PEOPLE.
This could be one of the greatest finds of all time.
Why?
Maybe not all time. All time might be the Holy Grail, the original 10 commandment stone tablets, etc.
But certainly the last 100 years. It is a mystery that has endured. Most of Earhart's contemporaries are long dead. But the mystery of her disappearance persists.
ChrisMcK===We have several mysteries that have happened in the recent past. We still have many MIA in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, WWII and WWI to mention just a few. It's close to the Fourth of July honor a Vet not Amelia and Fred.
REALLY?
Read the article if you have to ask why.
Whats so important about "The great Bear"? HJAHAHAHA ursaminor
The US Navy was pretty incompetent by not definitively searching this island dircetly under Earhart's flightpath right after the disappearance. They had nothing else to do in 1937.
Incompetent is a strong word. Search and rescue techniques were much more rudimentary back then than they are now. They actually conducted the most expensive search in Navy history (up to that time). Part of the problem is that there were conflicting opinions about where she had likely gone down. Initially, the theory that she had flown south was given some credence, but fairly quickly, the prevailing wisdom became that she crashed in the water and sank to the northwest of Howland. It is hard to build a search grid when nobody really knows where to look, and the Pacific is a damn big ocean.
Clearly, not enough attention or credence was given to the possibility that she may have actually landed on one of these islands. If that was the case, they would have done more than buzz the islands with airplanes. The Navy would have put "boots on the ground" and conducted an actual search of every island in range of the Electra.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
DOU44==The United States did all they could to find Amelia and Fred but they turned up empty. United States has not recovered many people missing from the pages of history and it was not for the lack of trying.
Look this is a dumb thing to do and all it will accomplish is for some group to make money off the lives of good people that went missing. That happened 75 years ago. We still haven't accounted for many soldiers and huge war ships that were lost at sea in a lot of wars. So if they want to spend money on such things let them find the ones that were lost fighting for this country first. This is silly and a waste of time and money to profit a few.
I'm a little older, and even when I was a child Earhart was still a great story. My parents talked quite a bit about her. It's one of the old unsolved mysteries that might actually have an ending. I will be anxious to hear what is found.
For the naysayers, I know that we live in a time of instant gratification, but after 75 years, the mystery is still there. It's worth the effort to look. It might not be YOUR cup of tea, but YOU are not everyone. Sorry about that. Patience is a virtue.
nicely put.
here's a theory you can run with: She went down in the ocean, probably died of exposure.
what ELSE is there to learn ? Searching some way of BLAMING someone - probably a man - for her DEATH ?
WHAT, I ask, is the POINT ?
She's passed on and all these people investigating her moment in history are living in HER past.
What a waste of human potential. But hey, you're all self-directed, but directed to what ? - many wonder.
another chance to claim that some woman did this, some woman did that, some women ...just can't be shut up.
Even after seventy five freeking YEARS !
You are part of the uncurious, unlearned population. Go back to the Kardashian Show thread or sportsball yap.
wild-P, what on Earth are you talking about?
There's a lot more point to the search than you inane post. That's for sure.
RANT:
intransitive verb
1 : to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
2 : to scold vehemently
transitive verb : to utter in a bombastic declamatory fashion
This has been reported for the past several months. This is a privately funded exploration. Worry not taxpayers!
Wish I could go with them and get a paid vacation as they are doing. BTW all they can learn is if she died on impact or suffered a long lingering death. What difference will it make?
What difference did finding the Titanic make? Great story and people are still fascinated by it. Pretty good movie, too!
All I can say when it comes to the trolls that could think of better things to do is - shut the **** up. If you have some great idea on how to save the world with other peoples money then please, by all means, go do it. It is unlikely, however, that that is the case. If it were, you wouldnt be surfing the internet in the middle of the afternoon on a work day.
According to some Scientists everything is just a Hologram so nothing makes any difference anyway. LOL
The world is a stage and all the people actors. So we are here to entertain each other.
"What difference will it make?"
It will make NO difference but who says it needs to? This is about history and intellectual curiosity and the need to know what happened to someone who is more significant than the celebrities and sports stars who command the attention of today's headlines.
An interest in learning (something besides gossip) is lacking in so many people today..
The purpose of this expedition is to continue the funding of Richard Gillespie & TIGHAR by gullible people. This is despite the fact that he has no evidence & no clue of what happened to Earhart.
If he had no evidence and no clue, his search would have ended 20 years ago. I think TIGHAR has located some very interesting evidence. No smoking guns. But enough to continue with the search. Ask yourself: what would a 1930's era woman's shoe and 1930's era woman's makeup be doing on a supposedly uninhabited atoll in the middle of the Pacific suspiciously near to where a famous 1930's woman went missing? There may be "rational explanations." But why discount the obvious one.
His search didn't end 20 yrs ago only because the world is full of gullible people who donate every time he announces another bogus discovery.
Frankly, I get REAL TIRED of hearing this type of stupid gripe.
If that's the case, then we should all gripe at Ballard for finding the Titanic, and chew out everyone involved in the salvage after that, and let's include James Cameron for his efforts and research too. Gee, why not also complain about money spend on digging up pyramids, Inca ruins, Cliff dwellers in the Southwest, etc. etc. etc. etc. Give me a break.
As for the "mystery" it seems to not be a big one what with evidence found so far. The radio transcripts say a lot about it. Too many received messages were "dismissed" as hoaxes at the time. The lack of LF radio because the antenna "looked stupid" probably sealed their fate more than anything else.
They had to know the fuel was running out, so it makes perfect sense to land on an atoll rather than keep flying until they had to ditch into water. Park ANYTHING in such a sandy low altitude place, and it won't last long. Their remaining radio was on the wrong band since they left the HF home, and the VHF they did have would be a very short range while sitting on the ground. Had someone listened a bit harder back then, the coordinates they did send out (what got past the static) could've been searched instead of just ignoring it as bogus.
And then we have some "expert" look at a few bones and make a snap decision that it's not them. And, of course, they get lost, so that's a dead issue now.
The incompetence on this entire flight was from start to finish, and includes Earhart herself for the radio issue among other things such as being rusty on Morse code and leaving a much needed LF behind. The searchers were only following orders, with factors as the ignored radio transmissions that COULD have helped, ending with lost evidence that was found around WWII.
Maybe the team will find some wreckage and end the debate once and for all. But, wait, maybe not, any ID numbers will likely be corroded away, and someone will claim it's from a downed WWII plane instead, and it'll go on. (and on, and on)
the Lockheed Electra is the new Titanic. Put James Cameron on it, call Celine Dione and we're on our way to a new blockbuster.
And how about Lindsay Lohan to play Amelia Earhart? She does look a little like her.
Dead for 75 years, I mean.
keep looking you might find a shoelace
she's having tea with big foot and the loch ness monster
Mysteries are mysteries until they are solved...detective fiction is a huge seller...this is real. Like who really wrote Shakespeare plays or what happens when we die, curiosity propels us to seek the answers. I say Go Tighar. Put this curiosity to work and find the answers. Let the trolls eat crow.
I agree with others on here about the bleeding heart liberals who think this money should be spent else where. If you didn't have insurance on your house, tough sh*t. Forest fires are not a new thing...
How about we advance man kind rather than rewarding people who are losers.
The rest of us would like to learn about history, science and space.
Dear Ryan: I am a 'bleeding heart liberal' as you call us, and I think the investigation should continue. It should continue because we need to know, not because it will change the events or the outcome. If you didn't have insurance on your house in a forest, with the risk of fires reaching your house, it's not tough sh*t, you're simply an idiot, no more, no less (It's like me having a house in Florida and not purchasing hurricane or flood insurance).
Advancement for mankind will be possible when the powers that be allow 'everyone' to access a decent education. But hey, aren't the cons who consider education a privilege and not a right? In closing, be careful what you wish for. Learning those things are extremely dangerous for the cons... you setting yourself for trouble.
Amelia's Lockheed Electra was within 75 miles of her target Howland Island when her radio cut off. Chief Radioman Leo Bellarts said: "Her voice sounded frantic."
Nikumaroro is 360 miles south-east of Howland and at a right angle to her flight path -- and she didn't have charts for those islands.
Airman Richard Beckham flew over Nikumaroro seven days later and said: "We altered course to Gardner Island ... we always went low over the islands at 100 feet ... we couldn't see anyone, and we always scanned the beaches."
The US sent nine ships, 66 aircraft, and well over 3,000 sailors and airmen who covered well over 250,000 sq. miles of open sea and every island within a 650 mile radius of Howland.
Taken from, The Hunt For Amelia Earhart
Douglas Westfall, historic publisher, Specialbooks
You're right Doug, she didn't have enough fuel to get near this island & it was searched within a week. The idea that she could have landed intact on the reef, in the surf, is also preposterous. None of Gillespie's "evidence" over some 20 yrs is credible, but as long as he can garner media attention & secure funding from foolish people, he has a secure lifetime occupation.
Hope they can keep coming up with these "reality" shows. A lot of armchair experts need to know. Could be the answer to a trivia question some day. Go Discovery channel. Geez.
How come all this didn't come about during WWII? Maybe she was caught by a fishing boat. Who knows. I know that going solo around the world would be something I wouldn't do. I have trouble soloing 13 miles to town to buy groceries. LOL Y'all have a great 4th.