July 2, 1937 - Amelia Earhart

At this point, with crying wolf so many times, TIGHAR would have to have Miss Earhart come up and personally shake my hand before I would believe they have actually found her plane!

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Exactly!

Paul Mantz was likely the most correct, giving an exhausted AE almost no possibility of her surviving the Electra going down in the ocean.
People simply will not accept the plane hit the water, broke up and sank.

My own opinion, if AE couldn't handle a Pitcairn Autogiro, (She wouldn't listen when told how to fly it) that she'd never have the skills to pull of a water landing in an Electra. (She cracked up the Electra in Hawaii because she wouldn't listen to Paul Mantz)

TIGHAR reminds me of those expeditions that claim to have found Noah's ark. It's always, "Next year we'll get a much closer look" and then when it's next year they say, "Next year, we'll REALLY get a closer look" and it just keeps going on until you have to conclude they don't have anything. It's just a way of securing funding but you have to wonder who is willing to waste that much money on something that is forever never panning out.

"The Final Hours Amelia Earhart's Last Flight: In May 1937, Amelia Earhart embarked on the most ambitious and dangerous flight of her career: an attempt to fly around the world at the equator. Six weeks later, she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared without a trace in the South Pacific. In "The Final Hours", we take a journey around the world in a vintage Lockheed Electra, recreating Amelia's flight and reliving the adventure through her diaries and logbooks. Through interviews with aviation experts and historians we discover a possible solution to the mystery of her disappearance. Released: January 15, 2000 Genres: Documentary"

[video=youtube;ZkZa0O3ZvVk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkZa0O3ZvVk&list=HL1370120011[/video]

Lawsuit

The story of the search for Amelia is better then a soap opera! http://now.msn.com/amelia-earhart-plane-lawsuit-says-wreckage-was-found-in-2010-1

An array of detailed aerial photos of the remote island where Amelia Earhart may have survived for a time as a castaway has resurfaced in a New Zealand museum archive, raising hopes for new photographic evidence about the fate of the legendary aviator.

Found by Matthew O'Sullivan, keeper of photographs at the New Zealand Air Force Museum in Christchurch, the images lay forgotten in an unlabeled tin box in the museum's archives.

The box contained five sheets of contact prints -- for a total of 45 photos, complete with negatives -- and a slip of paper with the words "Gardner Island."An array of detailed aerial photos of the remote island where Amelia Earhart may have survived for a time as a castaway has resurfaced in a New Zealand museum archive, raising hopes for new photographic evidence about the fate of the legendary aviator.

Found by Matthew O'Sullivan, keeper of photographs at the New Zealand Air Force Museum in Christchurch, the images lay forgotten in an unlabeled tin box in the museum's archives.

The box contained five sheets of contact prints -- for a total of 45 photos, complete with negatives -- and a slip of paper with the words "Gardner Island."

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http://www.nbcnews.com/science/did-...may-tell-6C10434478?franchiseSlug=sciencemain

This is from the official report by the Captain of the USS Colorado, after the Vought Corsair float planes searched Gardner island. No one was seen on either Gardner Island or McKean Island. McKean Island was such that a plane could have made a safe crash landing either on the beach or in the center of the Island. No dwellings appeared on Gardner or any other signs of inhabitation. A long shallow lagoon extends the entire length of the Island and through most of the width. A seaplane could land in the lagoon and it is believed that a land plane could make a forced landing there, and the occupants walk ashore. Coral reefs extended out from the shore line for about 150 yards. At Gardner Island a four thousand ton tramp steamer has piled up head on and remains there with her back broken. Groves of Cocoanut palms grow on the western end and the entire island is covered with tropical vegetation. Myriads of birds cover both islands.

Grandpa and Earhart

My grandfather (Frank Johnson) was an officer in the Coast Guard from 1922 to 1958. He was stationed all over the west coast of the USA, from Alaska to Seattle to San Francisco, with much traveling to other places. In 1937, he was the station command radio officer in charge of all radio transmissions from San Francisco. He was supposed to be the one to coordinated the radio signals through the Pacific flight of Earhart.

As you can imagine, this wasn't the highlight of his career, but from what I've read in the Long's book (Elgin and his wife), Earthart wasn't interested in learning the detailed and very technical aspects of the Bendix radio system. Had she known it as it was supposed to be used, it would have been rather easy to triangulate into Howland, but the manner of sending and receiving signals was complex.

You can see photos of him below, with George Putnam, and then another article that mentions him, Mantz, and many others. My grandfather died in 1963 (after being captain of the port of New York for four years, and then a retirement), so I was never able to talk with him about it. And, with most people of this era, they wouldn't talk about it anyway. I did ask my grandmother about that time, and Earhart, and she said "Oh, that was such a long time ago - no one cares any more." But, I think she didn't like Earhart. My grandpa was a pilot before that time, and when he met my grandma in 1933, she said he could fly planes, or marry her, but he could not have both.

My grandma said that grandpa personally knew Earhart, but I don't have any other information about this. He would have been on site for the radio communications on her first attempt at the flight going West before her crash in Hawaii.





And an article that mentions him as well...

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/amelia.html

I wish my family would have talked more about the historic things that he went through, including WWII. I would have been very much interested in hearing his side of the story in how Earhart was lost.

BuzzTheTower said:

... I would have been very much interested in hearing his side of the story in how Earhart was lost.

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That would have been a very interesting conversation, indeed.

BuzzTheTower said:

My grandfather (Frank Johnson) was an officer in the Coast Guard from 1922 to 1958. I would have been very much interested in hearing his side of the story in how Earhart was lost.

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Ever see this?
http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/earhart&CISOPTR=1700&REC=2
from
http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm...ubjec&CISOROOT=/earhart&t=s&CISOSORT=descri|f

Whoa! That's fantastic. I've done many searches with his name, but the fact that he often used "F.K. Johnson" makes it much more complex. I'm so glad that you found this, and I'm going to see if my mom and uncle will be able to ask Purdue for more info, or copies of the letters. There's another letter in the larger list with "T. K. Johnson", whom I'm sure is really FKJ. He also went by Ken, and that makes things even more complicated, haha. That's the name my grandma used.

Also, I've watched the videos about Earhart on Saipan in Japanese hands, and I really think that is what happened. One of Roosevelt's secretaries listened to a conversation about Earhart in 1944 on the phone, and her account of what Roosevelt said was quite interesting. Thank you so much for posting this info!

BuzzTheTower said:

Also, I've watched the videos about Earhart on Saipan in Japanese hands, and I really think that is what happened. One of Roosevelt's secretaries listened to a conversation about Earhart in 1944 on the phone, and her account of what Roosevelt said was quite interesting. Thank you so much for posting this info!

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You're more than welcome, but... link?

Hmmm... I think I know how this is going to end: she'll go through the same rip in the fabric of reality, taking more Japanese with her.

http://now.msn.com/amelia-earhart-traffic-reporter-plans-flight-around-the-world

New photo, new clue.


http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/28/4208139/piece-of-metal-may-offer-clue.html

Bruce Wayne said:

http://news.discovery.com/history/u...om&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=MythBusters

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You'd think that "real" news reporting would be picking up on this if it was a creditable discovery.

Big Man said:

You'd think that "real" news reporting would be picking up on this if it was a creditable discovery.

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That's because Ric Gillespie's TIGHAR, has lost all it's credibility over the years, with all it's sensational claims of finding Amelia!

They were discussing this on CBS This Morning yesterday. Anyone else catch it?


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Heather said:

They were discussing this on CBS This Morning yesterday. Anyone else catch it?

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When I hear it from Walter Cronkite, I'll believe it.

Oh, I didn't say anything about believing it! I just found the timing between finding this thread and seeing that blurb on TV kind of funny.


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Any thoughts on the story in today's news about the old photo recently discovered supposedly showing Earhart and Noonan? I am usually somewhat skeptical about "new finds" like this, but this time it appears to be receiving coverage by the major news outlets (ABC, CBS, NBC).