Island May Hold Clues to Earhart's Fate

[samanthajane13]

Researchers plan to visit an uninhabited island in the Pacific next spring to search for clues that they hope will solve one of history's most enduring mysteries: the fate of aviator Amelia Earhart.

Researchers with the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, which goes by the name Tighar, are slated to go to Nikumaroro Island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii, in May and June to retrieve the personal effects of a castaway who died there, ABC News reported.

"We think we will be able to come back with DNA," Tighar Executive Director Ric Gillespie told ABC. The group has been doing archaeological work on the island, formerly called Gardner Island, since 2001.

Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and she was the first pilot of either gender to fly solo from Hawaii to California. She and navigator Fred Noonan vanished over the Pacific on July 2, 1937, during an around-the-world flight.

Earhart's fate has fascinated people for decades. Tighar believes that Earhart's plane crashed off Nikimaroro Island and that she was able to survive there a short time before dying. But ABC points out that others have different ideas. For example, Elgen Long, a well-known Earhart historian, believes that the aviator's plane went down after running out of fuel near Howland Island, about 1,650 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Others think that Earhart's plane went down in the Marshall Islands, which were controlled by Japan, and that the Japanese held her as a prisoner. Still others hold that the disappearance was staged and the Earhart returned to the United States to live under an assumed name. (A blog posting on the Encyclopedia Britannica's Web site gives a brief overview of the Earhart theories.)

If members of the Tighar team succeed in recovering DNA, they will compare it against genetic material from a woman directly related to Earhart. The relative hasn't been publicly identified.


http://news.aol.com/article/island-m...melia%2F591908

[BeastofBears]

They certainly found stuff: here's an update and news on when a tv special is airing.

http://news.discovery.com/history/am...ne-101210.html

They found a possible finger bone, makeup and a woman's compact, and pre-war American bottles used to boil water, and of course, a partial skeleton in 1940, now lost...all the evidence suggests an American woman was stranded on Nikamororo, and who else might it be? (But just looking at the bone, I would be surprised if they got dna its so damaged)

[samanthajane13]

WOW, Bob!!

Thanks for that!! I was always fascinated with Amelia Earhart.

[BeastofBears]

WOW, Bob!!

Thanks for that!! I was always fascinated with Amelia Earhart.

She flew out of the Oakland Airport on that flight. The old buildings, I see every day when I go to get my ds at school. I think of her often.

[lorettalockhorn]

Bones found on island might be Amelia Earhart's



NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The three bone fragments turned up on a deserted South Pacific island that lay along the course Amelia Earhart was following when she vanished. Nearby were several tantalizing artifacts: some old makeup, some glass bottles and shells that had been cut open.

Now scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the tiny bone chips in tests that could prove Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world.

"There's no guarantee," said Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a group of aviation enthusiasts in Delaware that found the pieces of bone this year while on an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii...

http://home.suddenlink.net/news/read...ARSDCCLM_UNEWS

[BeastofBears]

Thanks, Loretta, too fascinating!

If it was Nikomororo, it was a bad end

[lorettalockhorn]

It's fascinating to me that some of the theories could possibly be proved by a lipstick.

If anything ever happens to me, it's as good as DNA cuz I never leave home without it.

[samanthajane13]

Bones found on island might be Amelia Earhart's



NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The three bone fragments turned up on a deserted South Pacific island that lay along the course Amelia Earhart was following when she vanished. Nearby were several tantalizing artifacts: some old makeup, some glass bottles and shells that had been cut open.

Now scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the tiny bone chips in tests that could prove Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world.

"There's no guarantee," said Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a group of aviation enthusiasts in Delaware that found the pieces of bone this year while on an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii...

http://home.suddenlink.net/news/read...ARSDCCLM_UNEWS

Thank you, Loretta!!

I'll be anxiously waiting for the results!!

[BeastofBears]

It's fascinating to me that some of the theories could possibly be proved by a lipstick.

If anything ever happens to me, it's as good as DNA cuz I never leave home without it.

Wouldn't it just be classic?
*Fred, you swim out there right now and get my lipstick before the Electra goes down!
*Um, Amelia, we have bigger problems here than your purse.
*I notice you managed to rescue the Jack Daniels. Now swim!!

[lorettalockhorn]

OMG BoB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

vs.

[samanthajane13]

LOL-I missed that post!!

Good one, ladies!!


Scientists Try to Solve Amelia Earhart Mystery Through Her Saliva

All possible traces of Earhart's DNA, on clothing or locks of hair, have long since dried up or is considered unreliable. Instead scientists are relying on personal letters to family that Earhart would most have likely written herself. And they're in luck: during that time, most people used letter openers from the side so the original seals remain intact.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/2011022...fullworldyahoo

This could be GREAT NEWS!!!

[samanthajane13]

Okla. tests inconclusive in Amelia Earhart search

NORMAN, Okla. – Tests to determine if bone fragments found on a remote South Pacific island are the remains of Amelia Earhart are inconclusive, researchers announced Wednesday, dashing hopes they might help explain what happened to the famed aviator who disappeared in 1937 while trying to fly around the world.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20...tsYXRlc3RzaW5j

[BeastofBears]

Now they have found FRECKLE CREAM on Nikomororo! Who else is going to be running around out there, at that time, with freckle cream!

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/...en-discovered/

[SaraSidle]

what do you think BoB

[lorettalockhorn]

Thanks for the update BoB - it's fascinating!

Howdy Sara!

[samanthajane13]

Time to get some Carbon-14 testing and finger prints checked on that freckle cream!!

[Amy]

Was she known to use freckle cream?

[BeastofBears]

what do you think BoB

Dude! HI, Sara!

I think it was this island. Too much there. I can't think of any reason this sandspit would have 1930's freckle cream on it, let alone the other stuff.

[BeastofBears]

Was she known to use freckle cream?

She was a redhead. Trust me.

Whoever was stranded here, it was bad. Trying to get food, figuring out how to boil water in coke bottles, using broken glass as cutting instruments for turtle butchering, clearly starving.

[lorettalockhorn]

Amelia may have been ahead of her time in an interesting way - the article at BoB's link states that is was well documented that she had freckles and disliked having them - nowadays we know how dangerous it is for fair-haired, fair-skinned, fair-eyed people to be exposed to UV - if she had lived she might have been a spokespilot for SPF usage!

>>‬bottles and other artifacts we have found at the Seven Site tell a fascinating,* ‬but still incomplete,* ‬story of ingenuity,* ‬survival,* ‬and,* ‬ultimately,* ‬tragedy.

Amen.

BoB, I think it's hard not to jump to the conclusion that it was her; the location of the island to her route along the equator adds to the circumstantial evidence.

[lorettalockhorn]

Amelia Earhart Distress Call Details Emerge

Dozens of radio signals heard after her plane crashed add to evidence that the legendary aviator didn't just vanish.



...At 07:42 local time, as she flew toward the target destination, Howland Island in the Pacific, with her navigator Fred Noonan, Earhart called the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, stationed at Howland Island to support her flight.

“We must be on you, but cannot see you -- but gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet,” she said.

Earhart's final inflight radio message occurred a hour later, at 08:43.

“We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait,” she said.

According to TIGHAR, the numbers 157 and 337 refer to compass headings -- 157 degrees and 337 degrees -- and describe a navigation line that passed not only Howland Island, the target destination, but also Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro...

http://news.discovery.com/history/am...ls-120601.html

[BeastofBears]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/06...ic-atoll-video

So sad...they were apparently sending all these messages and no one came...

[lorettalockhorn]

Thanks BoB, I can't remember if we've read the distance, but Howland and Nikumaroro seem to be only about 800 miles apart.

[samanthajane13]

Amelia Earhart mystery may be solved in Pacific

Seventy-five years after Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific, a research team is setting off July 2 with high hopes of resolving the mystery surrounding the pioneering aviatrix.

For the tenth time in 23 years, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) will set off for Nikumaroro island in Kiribati to establish whether Earhart survived the apparent crash of her aircraft.

http://news.yahoo.com/amelia-earhart...GFnZQ--;_ylv=3

[lorettalockhorn]

Good stuff!

[lorettalockhorn]

Happy Birthday Amelia Earhart, wherever you may be



SAN JOSE, California, July 24, 2012 - Amelia Earhart is a prime example of someone who made history on purpose. She made history because it helped gain her fame and publicity which provided her with the resources to keep doing what she loved, which was flying through the wild blue sky in an airplane. When she was able to continue flying, she could continue to make history.

Ironically, not only did she manage to make history all the way up to her mysterious disappearance, but also her story and the memory of Amelia continue to make history, even today...

http://communities.washingtontimes.c...melia-earhart/

[lorettalockhorn]

Lost at sea: Hunt for Earhart's plane abandoned



HONOLULU – A $2.2 million expedition that hoped to find wreckage from famed aviator Amelia Earhart's final flight is on its way back to Hawaii without the dramatic, conclusive plane images searchers were hoping to attain.

But the group leading the search, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, still believes Earhart and her navigator crashed onto a reef off a remote island in the Pacific Ocean 75 years ago this month, its president told The Associated Press on Monday...


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/23...#ixzz21XwJ1mdf

[lorettalockhorn]

Amelia Earhart Honored With Google Doodle...

http://www.webpronews.com/amelia-ear...doodle-2012-07

[lorettalockhorn]

Amelia Earhart search to continue despite lack of hard evidence (+video)



Even though a monthlong voyage for Amelia Earhart's plane wreckage turned up nothing definitive, the searchers devoted to the hunt say they have a trove of evidence to examine that will help shed light on what happened to the famed aviator 75 years ago.

The expedition to a remote atoll roughly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii was well on its way back to Honolulu on Tuesday as Earhart's family and others marked what would have been the American icon's 115th birthday...

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/201...evidence-video

[lorettalockhorn]

TIGHAR’s Niku VII expedition ushered in an important new chapter in the continuing search for Amelia Earhart's remains and her aircraft.

We are returning from Nikumaroro with volumes of new sonar data and hours upon hours of high-definition video. This represents a treasure trove of new research. The TIGHAR team will now be reviewing and analyzing all of new material recovered from the site. Putting the pieces of this historic forensic mystery together is being documented for Discovery Channel’s upcoming television special. Only until we have had thorough analysis can we say what we have found and that answer will be revealed Sunday, August 19th only on Discovery...

http://tighar.org/

[lorettalockhorn]

Has Amelia Earhart's plane been found on the ocean floor?

Researchers trying to solve the mystery of the famous aviator's disappearance have discovered wreckage they believe may be debris from Earhart's plane...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/worl...icle-1.1139190

[BeastofBears]

Has Amelia Earhart's plane been found on the ocean floor?

Researchers trying to solve the mystery of the famous aviator's disappearance have discovered wreckage they believe may be debris from Earhart's plane...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/worl...icle-1.1139190

Fascinating comments after that article. seems to be a dearth of intellectual curiosity in the world these days.

[lorettalockhorn]

You gotta admit that whatever the heck happened to Hoffa is interesting. But likely much more deserved. The theories about how Earhart and Noonan suvived as long as they would have are fascinating.

And you really have to wonder what leads people to read such an article and then comment the way that they do.

[Marian Paroo]

You gotta admit that whatever the heck happened to Hoffa is interesting. But likely much more deserved. The theories about how Earhart and Noonan suvived as long as they would have are fascinating.

And you really have to wonder what leads people to read such an article and then comment the way that they do.

i like the thought of Hoffa spending his last minutes on earth regretting Tricky Dick's pardon - what a slap in the fact that was to the late RFK and his work to put him away.

But as for Earhart and Noonan, better at the bottom of the sea quickly, than captured by the Japanese.

[BeastofBears]

i like the thought of Hoffa spending his last minutes on earth regretting Tricky Dick's pardon - what a slap in the fact that was to the late RFK and his work to put him away.

But as for Earhart and Noonan, better at the bottom of the sea quickly, than captured by the Japanese.

I think this Nikumororo idea is very tempting, more so than capture by the Japanese, but TIGHAR really needs to come up with a serial number or something truly identifiable eventually. Otherwise, this stuff could just be the flotsam of a world at war.

[lorettalockhorn]

Good point BoB and I can't tell squat from the pix, so I hope they can get them downloaded/uploaded for us to see.

OT: I've already forgotten, but are there times with the entire island/atoll is under water? It seems likely to me that if either Earhart of Noonan survived the other, that there was likley a serious attempt to bury the body and I wonder if remains could ever be found.

[BeastofBears]

Good point BoB and I can't tell squat from the pix, so I hope they can get them downloaded/uploaded for us to see.

OT: I've already forgotten, but are there times with the entire island/atoll is under water? It seems likely to me that if either Earhart of Noonan survived the other, that there was likley a serious attempt to bury the body and I wonder if remains could ever be found.

It should be a simple procedure to find a shallow grave through imaging, could even find more hearths, then excavate. I'll look over TIGHAR's stuff and see if they've done that yet. I understand that the island had its forest canopy removed around 1940, though, so there could be some serious disturbance. If those trees came up by the roots, it could end up looking like there were hundreds of shallow graves on the island. I also hate to say it, but if one survived the other, there might have been some-disturbance-of the remains, if you understand my delicate wording.

[lorettalockhorn]

Wikipedia has a good article about Nikumororo from what I can tell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikumaroro and I was wondering since it's a coral atoll and the coral is referred to as razor sharp, if the area would be a hospitable for burial and as good a preservative as sand or if flooding might wash away remains.

[BeastofBears]

Wikipedia has a good article about Nikumororo from what I can tell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikumaroro and I was wondering since it's a coral atoll and the coral is referred to as razor sharp, if the area would be a hospitable for burial and as good a preservative as sand or if flooding might wash away remains.

Since storms took out the buildings, I imagine emergency shelter created by a castaway would be toast. Coral is actually pretty close to bone, and granules have been used to fill gaps in bone from missing teeth, to try and stabilize bone loss in young patients until they reach an age where they can get implants. So I don't think coral would be caustic to the bone, but I think it is pretty harsh if there is friction. jmho.

oh, I just remembered about the nasty crabs! They are carnivorous. They would rip a body apart if a weakened castaway could not bury a body deep enough.

[lorettalockhorn]

Thanks BoB; it makes sense that the coral wouldn't be caustic, but digging through it, especially without tools or only rudimentary tools and deeper rather than shallow, doesn't seem practical, especially in a weakened condition, but a) what do I know, and b) a girl can dream!

This is interesting but about as far as I got.

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/currentwork.html