Amelia Earhart plane fragment identified

A fragment of Amelia Earhart's lost aircraft has been identified to a high degree of certainty for the first time ever since her plane vanished over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator.

New research strongly suggests that a piece of aluminum aircraft debris recovered in 1991 from Nikumaroro, an uninhabited atoll in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati, does belong to Earhart’s twin-engined Lockheed Electra.

The breakthrough would prove that, contrary to what was generally believed, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, did not crash in the Pacific Ocean, running out of fuel somewhere near their target destination of Howland Island.

Amelia Earhart plane fragment identified

Instead, they made a forced landing on Nikumaroro's smooth, flat coral reef. The two became castaways and eventually died on the atoll, which is some 350 miles southeast of Howland Island.

In 10 archaeological expeditions to Nikumaroro, Gillespie and his team uncovered a number of artifacts which, combined with archival research, provide strong circumstantial evidence for a castaway presence.

New Research Focuses TIGHAR’s Underwater Search for Earhart Plane

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i think claims like this are made at least once every year, lets see this one

the piece of aluminum in question



the place from were it came

The yellow arrow indicates where an aluminum patch was installed on Amelia Earhart's airplane during a repair stop in Miami.

a reply to: Indigent

If they lived for awhile with no hope of rescue I hope they got their groove on a few times. Interesting find, but after ten expeditions this team may be grasping for anything to prove their theory, so I won't accept it totally until a body part is found (the one who died first must have done some kind of burial, or "dinner" as it's called in polite circles).

With no fresh water source on the island I imagine they died of dehydration not long after they used up whatever supply they had on the plane. IIRC there is very little, if any, shade on that island, which would hasten the dehydration. Nothing really to eat either, unless you count raw crab, and that would also more than likely further hasten dehydration (through vomiting). Add sunburn to the list. Fall asleep and wake to crabs peeling off chunks of your flesh. Not a pleasant way to perish.

I do hope this is true, but it is kind of sad.. I've read about this theory and it even has them trying radio communication for a time.. some signals were detected and I believe reading that search times were near this island .. the sad part is that if search parties had combed that area more, she and her navigator may have survived.

a reply to: Cohen the Barbarian

With any number of plane parts and containers, getting fresh water from sea water would have been no problem (evap/condense). It would be especially easy if they had fire. The lack of apparent shelter and food would be a bigger concern. Needless to say, it would be a crummy existence, but not impossible.

a reply to: Indigent

It may lay to rest one of the most controversial theory's but then again it may not, was amelia killed by the japanese.
Sorry bad link here is another.
www.broomfieldenterprise.com...
There were several witness who claimed to have seen a western woman matching amelias description beheaded by the japanese.
If it was not her then it must have been another western woman.

a reply to: Halfswede
As I understand it the plane, over a relatively short period of time, was moved by wave action and/or tides until it slipped off the edge of the reef, leaving little time to strip enough parts to build a solar still. And it would have to be a solar still, because there is no vegetation on the island to burn, and they went down because they ran out of gas. You have two people on an island where the average temperature is probably in the high 80s with humidity to match and no shade. They would need something like a gallon each per day to survive for any length of time, and it would be darn hard to build a solar still from scrap aluminum that could provide two gallons per day of fresh water. Putting the issue of water aside they were still subject to unrelenting sun (no sunscreen back then and no shade), wind (helps with dehydration), and a lack of food. They might have lasted two weeks, but I doubt it. If nothing else got them, the sun would have burned them to a crisp.

a reply to: Cohen the Barbarian

Assuming they knew how to make a solar still in the first place.

According to the wiki article on the island there is fresh water available in the form of an "unreliable lens" - but it may not have ben working, or they may not have known of it if they did get there. 24 men from the SS Norwich were able to survive on eth island for several days in 1929 although they did receive supplies from ships outside the reef.

originally posted by: Aleister
If they lived for awhile with no hope of rescue I hope they got their groove on a few times.

Earharts' 'boyish' haircut was not a fashion statement. No, they did not get their 'groove' on, even if they survived.