Finding Amelia Earhart

Speaker: Ric Gillespie
Tuesday, October 19, 2021, at 7:30 pm
LIVE at the upper Arden Gild Hall AND via Zoom
2126 The Highway, Arden, Wilmington, DE 19810
Filmmaker Ken Burns has observed that iconic historical figures are often “smothered in mythology” and it is the task of the historian to liberate them from “the barnacles of sentimentality that attach.” Barnacles may not be the most apt metaphor for the legends surrounding the life and loss of aviator Amelia Earhart, but no American icon has been more smothered in mythology since George Washington chopped down the cherry tree.
On July 2, 1937 Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the South Pacific during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. On October 19, 2021 aviation historian Ric Gillespie will correct the myths, chip away the barnacles, and explain how 33 years of forensic investigation has revealed the fliers’ fate.
The son of a decorated World War II pilot, Ric Gillespie grew up around airplanes and learned to fly while he was still in high school. In 1985, he left a career as an aviation accident investigator to found The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR). As TIGHAR’s executive director, Ric launched the organization’s investigation of the Amelia Earhart disappearance in 1988. Over the past thirty-three years he has supervised research that has established beyond a reasonable doubt what happened to Earhart and her navigator.
Ric Gillespie’s writings on the Earhart disappearance have appeared in the organization's journal TIGHAR Tracks and in the Naval Institute’s Proceedings and Naval History and in LIFE Magazine. The organization’s Earhart research and expeditions have been the subject documentaries produced by NBC News, ABC News, the Discovery Channel, and most recently National Geographic.
Ric’s book, "Finding Amelia" - the True Story of the Earhart Disappearance, was published in September 2006 by the Naval Institute Press.
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[@stewartj3407]

“I must be over you but can’t see you, very low on fuel”. I’m gonna quit searching and leave the area and my support ship, and try to find another island 4 hours away.

[@mattstorage7805]

Not quite.

[@anthonyangelici2963]

She was close, but ran out of fuel before she found Howland Island.

[@mattstorage7805]

And landed on the reef of Gardner Island.

[@lorraineniess116]

I Hope in our lifetime we finally find dear Amelia and Dear Fred, would be nice to have closure for them.

[@mattstorage7805]

We know what happened. They died as castaways on Gardner Islans. The evidence is irrefutable. They found her bones.

[@phmwu7368]

QSO the Betty Klenck notebook story is amazing !

[@jonpage4029]

Grew up in St. Pete first time ive ever heard this.

[@ILSRWY4]

Those two wires from each tail to a mast is NOT transmitting antenna, Those are the ADF sense antenna. The Radio Direction Finder (later called Automatic Direction Finder ADF) had two antennas. The loop, and the sense. The sense Antenna those wires from the tail, is used to find the station. The loop antenna implies exactly what it is, a loop seen on her plane above the cockpit. Later this loop antenna would be housed in a teardrop or football-shaped aerodynamic plastic shroud seen in WW2. The loop antenna rotates and is used to "find" the direction or bearing to the station. By measuring the combined voltage in the loop antenna and comparing that to the voltage received by the sense antenna, the ADF can determine the direction or bearing to the beacon (station). The mast the two sense wires are attached to also has its own communication antenna, and that is the antenna that is used to transmit/receive voice. Only The Mast itself is the communication antenna.

[@Dad_Brad]

Why would she send a cryptic message about her direction when she could have just said, “we can’t find ya’ll so we’re going to Gardner Island.”

[@iandawson457]

She said we must be on you but can’t see you. So she took the 157-337 line went north a little and south a little they ended up leaving the loop to where they were no longer able to be in contact with itasca. They probably ended up finding Gardner and landed and then when they were able to they stared making the distress calls.

[@twright4263]

@@iandawson457interesting. How did they fly in a straight line on 157-337 without knowing the magnetic declination along the way? This is why we use compasses to navigate. If your cars compass says you are travelling south, is that south based on true north or is it based on magnetic north?

[@sammybaugues1260]

You guys lost me on" hold the phone folks" sorry maybe you'll get a good sound program in the future and let it rip

[@EF-fc4du]

No way she made it to Gardener.

[@frankpatterson5843]

aluminum patch- used for cooking surface? or means of sun reflection signaling?

[@mattstorage7805]

Probably both, but mainly cooking.

[@markparker552]

Hello ric I love all information about amilia Earhart

[@GoSlash27]

The castaway campsite was 5 miles by foot away from the SS Norwich City? That doesn't make much sense to me. Why camp at the complete opposite end of the island from the plane?

[@mattstorage7805]

She had to seqrch the island lol. There could be a villagw, water, etc. You don't just five up after landing! The plane was washed away on the 5th day btw. Why camp by a waahed away plane and not explore? She gave up searching in the north.

[@booniebuster4193]

@@mattstorage7805 There were supplies left on the island by the Norwich City rescuers. Food, water, and a lifeboat were put on shore and left for any future shipwreck victims. I have seen photos of the stack of supplies. Plus, they would have had plenty of time to remove some of their survival gear from the Electra. This whole idea of a castaway at the "7" site is preposterous! Why wasn't there anything in the way of items from the Electra? Would she really take a Frecklly Cream bottle with her? The 7 site is a total wash of time and money. Why not spend the money searching Enderbury Island where there was an aircraft engine found in the reef? That engine has never been explained.

[@tonyyacullo]

This is a good eye opener------TIGHAR has been finding stuff on that island for at least 30 years. Even if you had the bones analyzed from the ones they got off the island id be interested in seeing if you can get any trace amounts of Lead or Mercury (especially on things like products dispensed in glass bottles that may) The pimple cream was loaded with heavy metal components that may be traceable in bottles further identifying misc. ingredients of the product

[@twright4263]

Problem is that the British found most of the stuff back in the 40’s. TIGHAR has been running with it ever since. Hell the aluminum washed up in the 90’s. TIGHAR made the same claims when searching for the white bird! They have a piece of metal and have credible witnesses! Sound familiar?

[@macgyver5108]

Ahhh "techknowledgie" difficulties! Some tech advice from a computer programmer and PC builder. A: your computer is feckless and "slow" which is why it's sluggish to switch to the next image. Just a stab in the dark... you're using an old or budget laptop trying to do a _HEAVILY taxing task_ like a live stream? You'd have _much_ better odds with a desktop with more "horsepower" than can be squeezed into a laptop. B: Do a _dry run_ 30-60 minutes beforehand to iron out any bugs and if your laptop is an old "potato" push the button _early_ and wait for the dinosaur to catch up instead of smashing the buttons impatiently and ending up 5 frames ahead too far.

[@neatstuff1988]

There was not so much a hairy take off but she was out of trim nose down. You don't yank an airplane off the ground you let it fly off the ground. If you have to yank it's out of trim Limits.

[@jonathanbair523]

Please re-do this video when your laptop/computer is working better...

[@mattstorage7805]

And without the cough

[@bv3700]

“Why were they at 1000’?” Could it be that they were low to get an accurate line of position? If you were at altitude, the sunrise would be earlier. Just spitballin’ here as I don’t fully know the use of an almanac and finding a line of position.

[@raoulcruz4404]

They were low to get below a scattered cloud layer. Scattered clouds to the northwest of Itasca were reported that morning.

[@MrMadvoter1]

if the broken wheel came off as Amelia landed, is it not possible the Electra continued for some distance before coming to rest? and from which direction did she approach the reef? this theory would suggest that the Electra's location could be several hundred feet from the wheel's known location. additionally this broadens the possible locations where the Electra came to rest. I'm sure this scenario has been considered and discussed?

[@Redman680]

It's unlikely that the landing gear came off upon landing. Amelia had already had a ground loop happen to her, blamed on failed landing gear. If the landing gear was torn off on landing, would the plane be in any condition to be able to start its engine to run the radio? The engines are the next thing to hit the ground if there's no landing gear. This wasnt landing on an airfield. This was an emergency landing on a coral reef! It seems more likely, if it is the landing gear from her plane, that it was torn off when the plane was swept off the reef. I have a huge problem with that story though, regarding people hearing distress calls for nearly a week after she disappeared. She could only run the engine at low tide, obviously & the pattern of calls attributed to her coincides with low tide. Obvious question........would the engine even restart after the first time it was immersed in saltwater? Amelia wasn't a mechanic & Noonan was seriously injured according to the reports, precluding him from making repairs/cleaning out the engine after each immersion over a week. It seems plausible that the plane could land on a reef & it's plausible to believe she could send distress calls on that first day. Beyond that I'm not convinced, without mentioning that she told the Ithasca that she was low on fuel(30 mins left) & it seems too far to stretch to say it would have the fuel to keep restarting over a period of a week. The hypothesis of the Nikamuroro landing strikes me as people wanting to believe she was unlucky & could have been found if the Navy could understand what they saw at Nikamuroro. Unfortunately, I think it's not the case. She wasn't a great pilot, didn't know morse code & her map reading was sketchy. Noonan could only plot where they were East to West & not North to South which I can't see as being helpful in their predicament. They took weather reports from the wrong date before take off & flew into headwinds off 25mph, not 12mph as she believed. This obviously would slow her progress towards Howland. I think they went down North of Howland, perhaps as far as 150-200 miles north based on windshear effect on her airspeed. If she had flown over Howland before dawn, the Ithasca would have known. She was the only plane in the area & since it was a coastguard ship, the radio would be manned 24/7. They would have known/heard her if she'd flown over ahead of time. Nikamuroro, at 409 miles south of Howland, was out of range of her Lockheed Electra even on a perfect day.

[@MrMadvoter1]

@@Redman680 has anyone entertain the possibility Amelia may have drifted south?

[@JohnDoe-ee6qs]

She transmitted for up to five days, she would have had to have an intact undercarriage to run the engines for that time as tge prop has to be clear of the water or ground, as one of the engines powers the radio equipment, after day five aircraft was either sweeped out to sea or undercarriage damaged or the aircraft had no more juice to run the engine, would be interesting to hear the weather forecast for that area fives days after her last transmission.

[@mattstorage7805]

The plane was destroyed when it was swept out to sea. It will never be found. It's gone. We know what happened to them.

[@fredflintstoner596]

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view!" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"

[@TONIOFSFV]

WTF 5 minutes was enough

[@myguitarmusic]

Noonan did not know at what speed he was flying. Landspeed and Airspeed is not the same. The headwind would have slowed down the plane making it possible that line 157/337 came up later. In short, if the plane moved slower, the line would have been more to the West. According to calculations on the Electra as equipped for Amelia, take fuel in consideration, headwind and some more calculations, it clearly shows the line came up more to the West, about 200 miles. The clear xmission at the end confirmed that she moved towards the Itaska and not away. This is an issue that needs to be addressed. The orinal backup plan said, reserve fuel to return to secondry Island if Howland not found. They were low on fuel upon arriving at 'Howland'. Extra fuel burned supporting the headwind theory. The speed can be calculates by her xmissions and position. It was slower than she thought.

[@Redman680]

I agree. She went down way to the North of Howland.

[@twright4263]

There was only two people in the plane and no survivors. How do people know what other people said, thought know or did? It would be all speculation. Nobody knows the speed of the electra except for at the beginning when they were still in contact with Lae.

[@twright4263]

Noonan could have used a pilot tube to measure static pressure which would measure speed of airflow around the plane. RPM combined with the size of the propellers put into a math formula can also give approximate speed.

[@echodelta.foxtrot7718]

Seems like there's a lot of evidence Amelia was a passenger on many flights prior to her disappearance. Is it possible her experience and the technology she was using were overwhelmed?

[@JohnDoe-ee6qs]

You might be on to something there, famous people rarely listen to others when the should

[@JohnDoe-ee6qs]

And always think their fame makes them better at everything, wouldnt be the first famous person to get brought down hard to reality

[@neatstuff1988]

She has just horrible radio Phrase ology and even after all her previous flying she had not learned a single thing about radios. That is just hard to believe except When you think Once she was an exposition she rarely took a lesson herself...

[@kevinatkab5219]

Why didn't the Itasca use colored flares to create a visual locator? Flares were invented at the turn of the century, so you would think by 1937, they were fairly common.

[@Redman680]

It was a sunny day & the flares wouldn't be visible given the direction the sun was shining at them from, based on the course they would take.

[@holden190]

This is impossible to watch: laptop issues, the coughing of the presenter, etc.

[@twright4263]

157-337 is a line of position which means they were on this line somewhere but they didn't know where. The question is how did they pick 157-337 and which 157-337 true or compass heading was she referring to? We have a 67 degree true heading (sunrise) 11 degrees north of Howland and a 67 degree compass heading (76.54 degree true heading) which is approximately 1.5 degrees north of Howland Island. They could have been on a 67 degree compass heading then turned right 90 degrees onto 157-337 compass heading. The could have used celestial navigation and the sun line, but celestial navigation is only 1 out of at least 10 ways of obtaining a LOP. They could have used an Advancing LOP or running fix. So again which 157-337 and how did they pick it?

[@about2mount]

They chose 157-337 because it was the established True North South line of positioning based on Noonan's Sextant and of their already established True West and East Line and position. Common procedure at that time if a target was missed was to fly an "opposing" line in increments hoping to find the missing target and why he chose that line. Since they did not find Howland they had to begin flying north for time on line 157-337, then south on line 157-337 and then doing this repeatedly in hopes of spotting Howland or the Smoke. But as I have stated they never suspected to have flown passed Howland over a map discrepancy which Noonan did not have on his map,,, hence they flew past then attempting the 157-337 search lines kept going further East and never could find anything and were lost. The Loop that Itaska had guessed by doing a visual inspection of the loop antenas position, they chose to search to the Northwest when the actual last voice messages from Amelia were actually coming from behind the loop to the southeast which they did not realize.

[@Redman680]

@@about2mountWhy didn't anyone hear her fly over Howland, if she passed over earlier than she believed? I believe she went down 150-200 miles north of Howland. I base this on the 25mph headwind they were flying into while believing the winds were 12mph. There's evidence to suggest that they confused the dateline date change & requested weather reports for the wrong day. Noonan would be basing some of his calculations on their airspeed, obviously.......but he thought the wind was 51% less than it actually was. I think they were flying slower, the engines drinking fuel faster to maintain rpm & they fell way short of reaching Howland. It fits better than the Nikamuroro hypothesis. Spoiler alert: She never had the fuel to reach Nikamuroro. She calculated that she'd have 35-45 gallons remaining when coming upon Howland, before adding the above mentioned wind speed problem. Even on its best day, that Lockheed Electra couldn't have made it 409 miles south of Howland.

[@about2mount]

@@Redman680 Fred Noonans map had a known glitch in it. It had placed Howland 9 miles further south that where it actuall was. This means trhey missed it to the south at about 10 miles or so and flew past it between the 1 hour gap between Amelia's Radio broadcast of the loop facing straight west from the Itaska's Antenna. Also its the only area that an underwater scan has not been done. It was also an area missed by the original Navy's search.

[@Dad_Brad]

Again I ask, Why would she send a cryptic message about her direction when she could have just said, “we can’t find ya’ll so we’re going to Gardner Island.” If that was her intention, wouldn’t she just say that? Why say 157-337 N&S blah blah..No. She would have said “where the hell are you guys, I’m going to Gardner. See you there in a few hours.”Gillespie has stated that he believes that was the Noonan’s intention once they got lost. That’s my biggest problem with this the whole Nikumaroro theory.

[@Dad_Brad]

Also, we’re the letters on the SS Newark City still visible for Earhart to read for her radio listeners? Was the shore of the island in 1930s even similar to what it’s like today?

[@washburnb1]

No. Gardner Island was 300 miles south and way off their course and nothing from an aircraft was found. This is the TIGAR theory. The scrap piece of aircraft aluminum did not match Lockeeds rivet patterns but did find a Cats Paw rubber boot heel.l

[@sammybaugues1260]

Lost me a minute into the video

[@michaelcooley4553]

This was put together by scholarz!

[@twright4263]

If we draw a circle around Lae with a 2556 mile radius this would hit Howland. At approximately 0743 Earnhart and Noonan believed they flew 2556 miles (we must be on you but can't see you). This means that they should have been somewhere on the circle. If Noonan used celestial navigation to find their latitude, this line would cross the circle putting an X on their approximate location. Howland is 2556 miles from Lae and 49 minutes (56 miles) north of the equator which puts an X on Howland's location. If they had 2 X's on the map why fly on 157-337 why not just fly direct? This is assuming that Noonan actually saw the sun, it could have been overcast for the first few hours of daylight.

[@poc329]

As Time Team says in the UK. You have got to look at the Archeology. And it all points to Gardener Island.

[@raoulcruz4404]

Nothing points to Gardner but $$$.

[@twright4263]

Amelia earhart and her navigator where given the wrong directions (true heading) based on a simple math error!!! 2556 miles equals 2221 nautical miles, 9.49 degree east magnetic declination near Howland Island. X = sin (inverse)(517÷2221) X = 13.46 degrees 90 - 13.46 = 76.54 degrees true 76.54- 9.49 = 67.05 degree compass heading!!! 157-337 can be represented by BOTH a 67 degree true heading and a 67 degree compass heading which is 1.5 degrees north of Howland Island!! Clarence Williams gave them the wrong directions!! Follow the math!!

[@about2mount]

No actually he did not, Williams used math to correct a 9 mile map discrepancy. They believe now that Noonan did not use Clarence Williams directions. They instead used Fred Noonan's own calculations based on the incorrect map. That placed Amelia's plane exactly 9 to 12 miles south of Howland. They flew past it and Baker islands then running a search line on 157/337 northwest to southeast they could not find it while pushing increments easterly then had to ditch somewhere just east south east of Baker. The area just southeast of Baker is the only area the entire navy had missed. It is also the only area that any search side-scan sonar has not pinged likewise. An old man here on KZbin shows that same are just 9 to 20 miles southeast of Baker and swears by it also. The whole point is how long could the plane stay buoyant and float. Two engines nose heavy left only her tail sticking up maybe a few feet out of the water. The other problem was the gasoline tanks pressure release manifolds which were mounted along the ceiling of the plane and then piped in 2 inch pipe running out under the plane just two feet from the tail section. Then being in the water in a nose-down position these fuel pressure release exhaust had nothing preventing sea water from filling the inner backup fuel tanks. She most likely sank in 30 minutes or less. Back then there were no colored vest or colored clothing to make searches easier to spot persons at sea. Fact is they would have never seen them unless they were right over top of them and looking down. Sad ordeal but that plane is right where that Old man claims it is and I can prove it using logic and common sense. Now why the Itaska chose to search northwest. All they had back then were Loop Antennas. The Itaska's loop antenna were set up to assist radio transmissions as a pointer device for a general area. One of the Itaska Radiomen when they hear Amelia's signal at its strongest then walked out onto the deck and eyeballed which direction the loop was showing. But the loop has a basic flaw, The flaw is that they can detect the same strong signal from in front of the loop and behind the loop. Itaska had two choices and never would have imagined that in only an hours time that Amelia would fly past them to the southeast and where that physical rear position of the loop was really showing them to be. Hence they unknowingly chose the northwest area to begin the search. This one flaw doomed them finding the plane more than likely before it sank. And the final thing is that they did not have the fuel to have made it to any of the Pheonix Islands if they missed Howland. What everyone has left out of the equation is Amelia's own words stating that fact and the above normal headwinds that they had no reports of in the last 6 hours leg while flying to Howland.

[@twright4263]

@@about2mount so it's just a coincidence that 2221 nautical miles (2556 miles) is a 67 degree compass heading 1.5 degree north of Howland Island. No one can prove what information Noonan did or didn't use.

[@twright4263]

@@about2mount in 1936 the US navy had corrected the location of Howland Island because it was incorrect prior to 1936. This was done to try to prevent an accident. So Fred should of had the new location. It was off by around 5 miles prior to 1936. 7.5 X 68.7 = 515 miles 7.5 X 69.4 = 520 miles Degrees latitude range from 68.7 miles apart near equator up to 69.4 miles apart closer to the poles. Lae and Howland are 7.5 degrees latitude apart.

[@moorek1967]

@@twright4263 That many be true, it does not accommodate the fact that from Lae, New Guinea to Howland is a straight shot, which she would have first gone over the Solomon Islands archipelago, and then the second archipelago Marshall Islands. Tuvalu was to the east. She would have flown directly over Rongorongo Island. These are not by any means uninhabited. Tonga was almost directly south of Baker Island. And this part of the Pacific has always had a lot of Merchant Marine activity, British fleets, and fishing trawlers from Australia, New Zealand and the other islands. So I find it very highly unlikely with those sea lanes that no other ship was listening nor anyone else saw her. So whenever she was lost, it was between Rongorongo and Howland. Even if she landed anywhere between the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, she would have been picked up by any fishing trawler or commercial ship. If she had taken that direct route, she would have been visually verified by Nauru. So why are there no reports from any commercial ships, fishing trawlers or radio transmitters from Australia, New Zealand or anywhere?

[@twright4263]

@@moorek1967 A deck hand on the murtleback bound for naru heard a plane go over the night before and the radio operator hears a woman say ship insight. This was just past the halfway point. The murtleback was just north of the Ontario. 1.5 degrees north of Howland is approximately 80 miles. F.Noonan was an expert navigator and ships captain. Howland is approximately 56 miles north of the equator and Baker is approximately 15 miles north of the equator. Everyone is blaming Noonan and I don't agree. The plane is somewhere north of the equator.

[@markparker552]

Hello

[@chuvang5458]

Looks like they just got rid of the original bones. Thats sloppy work.

[@user-sq4jz9up6g]

If you have a picture of the.landing gear why can't you search for it there?

[@twright4263]

It’s not landing gear. Dr Ballard team investigated it in 2019 and it is a pile of rocks! No plane debris anywhere!

[@PhantomDetectivesLLC]

I’m close to Ric and I knew the late Elgen Long. One of the two has the right theory.

[@BradHartliep-kn9ud]

No. They Don't. They have BOTH been wrong from day one. TIGHAR is a Joke and always has been ..

[@PhantomDetectivesLLC]

@@BradHartliep-kn9ud Elgen Longs book Amelia Earhart The Mystery Solved is based on years of research.

[@twright4263]

@@BradHartliep-kn9udwhat’s the magnetic declination near Howland? If they have done any research then you should be able to answer.

[@twright4263]

Tell Ric I would love to publicly debate him on this. Maybe he can answer why 157-337 is based on a 67 degree true course 11 degrees north of Howland and why 157-337 is NOT based on the 67 degree magnetic only 80 miles north of Howland on a 76.5 degree true course? Maybe he could answer how 2556 miles gives us a 78 degree true course (68.5 degree magnetic near Howland) and how 2221 nautical miles (2556 miles) gives us a 76.5 degree true course (67 degree magnetic near Howland)? How can they fly straight on a 157-337 true course to Gardner island without knowing the magnetic declination along the way?

[@jason60chev]

Why didn’t the navy just send a small ship to explore the island….JUST in the case the triangulation of the radio signals was correct? You can’t see dick from 400-500 feet in the air

[@raoulcruz4404]

The Navy and Lockheed considered the possibility of the airplane reaching Gardner Island as nearly impossible. They searched there on the insistence of Putnam. AE kept careful records of the fuel consumption and range of her airplane. Both on the first attempt and the second. This information was regularly sent back to the US. The aircraft did not have the range to get to Gardner.

[@jason60chev]

@@raoulcruz4404 On paper and slide rules. But......WHAT IF they had reached the island? All they did was send one/two planes to look and they reported signs of activity on an island which should not have any activity. WHAT would it have hurt to just send anykind of ship, with a launch to go check it out? Y'all sound like those Religious guys who discounted Galileo's experiments without even trying them!!!!

[@raoulcruz4404]

@@jason60chev Paper and slide rules? Documented factual fuel consumption. AE corresponded with Kelly Johnson regularly about the airplane’s range and fuel consumption. The amount of fuel onboard at Lae is documented. AE states it in her diary she mailed to Purdue. Station manager Mr. Balfour testified to the amount. You accept a theory that monetarily benefits a certain individual and organization over documented facts.

[@jason60chev]

@@raoulcruz4404 STILL........ WHAT would it have hurt to just send any kind of ship, with a launch to go check it out? Y'all sound like those Religious guys who discounted Galileo's experiments without even trying them!!!! All they had to do was to set foot on the island and check it out. Do you disagree? If you're going to search.......search.

[@raoulcruz4404]

@@jason60chev I’ve spent considerable time looking into the Gardner island theory and was on a forum dedicated to the AE world flight. I agree with the Navy’s decision. They only searched Gardner at the insistence of Putnam. What would it have hurt? A waste of time and resources. The Navy was chasing down dozens and dozens of leads. They have to draw the line somewhere.

[@jason60chev]

I would have enjoyed this more without the computer clutches and throat clearing and coughing. BIG detractors from the presentation.

[@happyhankjr]

At 4 minute mark you gave us about 10 seconds of OLD INFORMATION. I would say the show is going downhill except tat's where you started and remain.

[@karenpouncey4046]

Seriously? This is what happens when you let 5 year olds play with your equipment. Find another hobby.

[@crow9553]

What a bunch of hooey! The Electra crashed into the Pacific Ocean and sank to the bottom with Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in it.

[@peterclarke3990]

Oh well, that’s cleared the whole mystery up then. So, where did it sink being as you sound so convinced?

[@westglenn01]

No. You are commenting from a place of profound ignorance.

[@Jake-jh7bg]

They died on Sapian that's been proven and verified by us soldiers

[@thomasmcdaniel6264]

Yes, tons of evidence!! Admiral Nimitz even admitted as such.

[@booniebuster4193]

@@thomasmcdaniel6264 How has it been verified? The problem I see with the Siapan theory is if they wanted to get rid of her plane, why burn it in the middle of an army base in full view of everyone on the base. Why not just take off in it and fly out over the ocean and then bail out. Or load it on a ship and dump it at sea.