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Amelia Earhart

SoreShoulderSoreShoulder Member Posts: 3,148 ✭✭✭
edited April 2014 in General Discussion
Why are they making such a big deal about finding a few scraps of aluminum and plexiglass, a shoe heel and what might be a finger on Nikumaroro?

Besides possibly being where Amelia Earhart's plane crashed, there was a coconut plantation there in the 19th century, a shipwreck on its reef, and a British colony from 1939 until the early 1960s with its own post office.

Some of the crew of the wrecked ship got onto the island and were rescued in a few days because they had radioed for help before a fire forced them to try to get to the island. They buried several men who drowned and washed up on the island.

Also, a plane from the search for Earhart thought they spotted signs of recent habitation, which might have been the camp of the shipwreck survivors, but why didn't they send a boat to check it out?

Comments

  • SoreShoulderSoreShoulder Member Posts: 3,148 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A lot of attention on her lately. Gonna be a new explicit ion to look for her in July. What do you think happened?
  • EVILDR235EVILDR235 Member Posts: 4,398 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Earhart had short hair and may have been mistaken for a dead man and buried.

    EvilDr235
  • the middlethe middle Member Posts: 3,089
    edited November -1
    Because the scraps of aluminum and plexiglass are consistent with the construction of Earhart's plane. They also have a good sonar image of what appears to be a submerged Lockheed Electra in a shallow reef.

    Its worth investigating.
  • 1BigGuy1BigGuy Member Posts: 4,033 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Maybe THAT'S where Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went!
  • 11BravoCrunchie11BravoCrunchie Member Posts: 33,423 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'd certainly be interested to read any recent articles on the topic. Earhart was a true pioneer, challenging the accepted societal norms of what a woman can do.

    I'm 100% in favor of any person reaching their full potential without society saying "you're not allowed to do that."

    Why any society would find it acceptable to limit people on what they can achieve due to shallow, immature obstacles such as gender, national origin, or (dare I say) sexual orientation is well beyond my comprehension.

    People are only as good (or bad) as they allow themselves to be, and every person should be given respect (or lack there-of) based on their conscious actions and choices, not on their skin color, or who they're friends with, or how much money they have, or how they dress.

    Earhart challenged a society that said women couldn't fly aircraft, and she proved that she was just as capable as her male counterparts. Now, the US military, and other nations around the world, employ women as pilots in every aircraft type used, from cargo/transport aircraft to air superiority fighters.

    I once met a female USAF Captain who was an A-10 pilot. She was a very nice woman, and answered a lot of my questions about the capabilities of her jet that I didn't know anything about.

    I hope that Earhart's remains are located someday, so the mystery can be solved and her spirit can finally rest in peace.
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I hadn't heard anything about them finding something that might be from Amelia Earhart's plane.
    I have always been fascinated by her disappearance.

    Up until recently, it has been the greatest avaiation mystery of all time.
  • WulfmannWulfmann Member Posts: 4,906 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
    Up until recently, it has been the greatest avaiation mystery of all time.


    Once FL-370 fades Erhart's disappearance will remain as the greatest aircraft mystery IMO and rightfully so

    Wulfmann
    3YUCmbB.jpg
    "Fools learn from their own mistakes. I learn from the mistakes of others"
    Otto von Bismarck
  • chris8X57chris8X57 Member Posts: 1,270 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I read recently where a British destroyer recorded the finding of a small skeleton on Nikumaroro consistent with a females body type. This was in WW2 and at the time they had more important fish to fry.

    Also discovered were remnants of a bottle of woman's freckle treatment which is compelling evidence that Earhart may have been on the island.

    There was nothing to suggest that Noonan's (sp?) remains were found.
  • SoreShoulderSoreShoulder Member Posts: 3,148 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by chris8X57
    I read recently where a British destroyer recorded the finding of a small skeleton on Nikumaroro consistent with a females body type. This was in WW2 and at the time they had more important fish to fry.

    Also discovered were remnants of a bottle of woman's freckle treatment which is compelling evidence that Earhart may have been on the island.

    There was nothing to suggest that Noonan's (sp?) remains were found.
    Yeah, but there've been colonies there and possibly Polynesian settlement before then. From what I read, apparently the situation with freshwater wells is not consistently good, and the storms can be bad enough to wipe the island clean. That suggests the storms can be bad enough to deposit debris anywhere on the island.
  • SoreShoulderSoreShoulder Member Posts: 3,148 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'll be interested to see how the sonar image plays out but other sources said there shouldn't be a plane there any longer after being in salt water for so long.
  • SwanKongSwanKong Member Posts: 989 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
    I hadn't heard anything about them finding something that might be from Amelia Earhart's plane.
    I have always been fascinated by her disappearance.

    Up until recently, it has been the greatest avaiation mystery of all time.


    The disappearance of Flight 19 ranks right up there as well...
  • pwilliepwillie Member Posts: 20,253 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think Amelia and Noonan took off for places unknown....
  • the middlethe middle Member Posts: 3,089
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by SoreShoulder
    I'll be interested to see how the sonar image plays out but other sources said there shouldn't be a plane there any longer after being in salt water for so long.



    There are plenty of planes for that era still to be found in salt water.
  • SoreShoulderSoreShoulder Member Posts: 3,148 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by SwanKongThe disappearance of Flight 19 ranks right up there as well...Not in light of the fact that the flight leader had lost two other planes due to navigational error.
  • 1fisher1fisher Member Posts: 1,012 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    An interesting book is Amelia Earhart - Case Closed. It was written by a couple of authors who were long-time pilots, instructors and mechanics.

    As I remember, they were not too flattering of Amelia. They document several times where she got lost or crashed leading up to her big attempt, and they conclude that she was a mediocre pilot - not really capable of what she was trying.
  • SoreShoulderSoreShoulder Member Posts: 3,148 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Some of the stories surrounding flight 19 aren't traceable any further back than the Argosy Magazine article from the early 1960s such as some of the transmissions Taylor allegedly made about green water and instruments going haywire, and the report that the flight's emergency code was transmitted hours after they should have crashed.
  • SoreShoulderSoreShoulder Member Posts: 3,148 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by the middleThere are plenty of planes for that era still to be found in salt water.The conditions aren't necessarily the same.
  • Ray BRay B Member Posts: 11,822
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Viktor

    I hope that Earhart's remains are located someday, so her spirit can finally rest in peace.


    I think her spirit is resting in peace regardless of whether we find her plane or not.
  • plinkedplinked Member Posts: 402 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Heres some good info on Nikumaroro Island and the outfit trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill of speculation.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikumaroro
  • JunkballerJunkballer Member Posts: 9,309 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by 1fisher
    An interesting book is Amelia Earhart - Case Closed. It was written by a couple of authors who were long-time pilots, instructors and mechanics.

    As I remember, they were not too flattering of Amelia. They document several times where she got lost or crashed leading up to her big attempt, and they conclude that she was a mediocre pilot - not really capable of what she was trying.
    And she had a ball spending/playing with the rich hubbies money [;)], it was not the typical marriage either [:D]

    "Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee

  • fideaufideau Member Posts: 11,895 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The photo of a shipwreck on Nikumaroro shows what looks to be an aircraft landing gear sticking out of the reef. No one noticed it until recently. There is a hole in the reef in that location. The plane might have been there and broke up leaving the gear there for a while until storms carried it off. It seems to jive with reports that her transmissions mention a reef, and the time of them correlates with tides, meaning the plane was partially submerged at times.
    I think she landed there, tried the radio when the engines could be started at low tides, until the plane washed over the reef. The search was botched and she and Noonan died probably within a week or two. I hope they find the plane out there.

    From what I remember reading about her, she had a clothing line and probably not dependent on her husband, but he was trying to make a living promoting her. After all, he was the publisher who was making money off her before they were married. So instead of her spending his money, he was using her to make money.
  • dpmuledpmule Member Posts: 6,746 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have stood on the last runway that she and Fred departed from in Lae, Papua New Guinea and somewhere in a box I have a photo of the memorial plaque there.






    Mule
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