MovieChat Forums > Amelia (2009) Discussion > The death of Amelia Earhart solved

The death of Amelia Earhart solved

posted 15 years ago by jeffyoung1
5 replies | jump to latest

The death of Amelia Earhart has gone down in history as one of the nation's most enduring mysteries. But it's a mystery because her body and that of navigator Fred Noonan was never discovered. Yet this is an occasion where the answer to the mystery has always been there.

Assuming this movie depiction is accurate, including the depiction of the naval personnel communicating with Amelia almost to the very end, solves the mystery.

1) It was obvious from the radio communication that Amelia was almost on top of tiny Howland Island and the vessel, Itasca. But the low-hanging thick cloud and mist cover hindered her ability to detect the extremely tiny island.

2) It wasn't Fred Noonan's fault. He was sober that morning and had guided Amelia to within 200 miles of Howland Island. Even though he was a skilled celestial navigator, he too, was hindered by the thick cloud and mist cover. Also, Fred Noonan didn't have access to radar and GPS technology that makes navigating a snap today.

3) The rumors of the Japanese capturing and executing Amelia and Fred were complete conspiracy rumor nonsense. The Japanese were no where near Howland Island. Also the naval personnel were transmitting to Amelia when she was as close as 100 miles to Howland Island. Neither did Amelia radio any spotting of Japanese vessels or aircraft.

4) Amelia's Lockheed Electra was already running low on fuel. Everyone knew that. Amelia is not responsible for the ocean crash landing of her Electra when fuel ran out. But Amelia is responsible for not surviving the crash and therefore causing the death of Fred Noonan. In the movie, Amelia is seen lightening the Electra by dumping out what she felt was unnecessary weight. One of those items was the life raft. When the Electra crash landed on the ocean, it must have sank fairly rapidly. Without a life raft and even life vests, all Amelia and Fred could do would be to clamber onto the top of the Electra, but drown as the plane sank beneath the waves. It was a sad ending for a brilliant career as Amelia's. I'm not sure if Amelia would have stopped flying as she promised. She might have been a danger thrill addict, certainly not at the beginning, but later in life as her flying became riskier. Something tells me that she would have preferred to go out at the top of her game instead of living long into old age and obscurity.

[–] moleski-2 15 years ago

... Assuming this movie depiction is accurate, including the depiction of the naval personnel communicating with Amelia almost to the very end, solves the mystery.

You may see for yourself where the movie depiction is accurate and where it gets away from the logs made on 2 July 1937.

http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Research/Bulletins/37_ItascaLog s/Itascalog.html

The movie gets some things right and other things wrong.

... the low-hanging thick cloud and mist cover hindered her ability to detect the extremely tiny island.

THAT is pure fiction. When AE radioed, "We must be on you but cannot see you," she was not complaining about thick clouds and mist; she was saying that they had come to the area predicted by a combination of celestial navigation and dead reckoning and that they could see only empty ocean all around them. This does not indicate a failure on Noonan's part. Given the limits of his instruments, no one in reality expected him to bring the plane in without help from radio direction finding. The characters in the movie (both AE and FN) make ludicrous claims about how Fred could find the island all by himself.

All that the real Noonan could do was to get the plane within radio range of the island. Then it was the job of AE and the Coast Guard to refine the final bearings that would bring them to Howland. This is where the breakdown of radio communications comes in as the major cause of the loss.

In the movie, Amelia is seen lightening the Electra by dumping out what she felt was unnecessary weight. One of those items was the life raft.

There is no evidence that there ever was a life raft on board, let alone one that was dumped in Lae. The evidence suggests that she and Fred picked up parachutes in Darwin, Australia.

http://tighar.org/TTracks/1994Vol_10/1001.pdf--"Earhartian Darwinisim."

Taking parachutes instead of a life raft suggests that AE and FN might have been tipped off by Lockheed about the low odds of making a survivable "water landing."

Marty
TIGHAR #2359

[–] morgana-31 15 years ago

3) The rumors of the Japanese capturing and executing Amelia and Fred were complete conspiracy rumor nonsense. The Japanese were no where near Howland Island.

My understanding of the rumour - documented by CBS man, Fred Goerner - was that neither was she.

Love is never having to say you're sober.

[–] moleski-2 15 years ago

3) The rumors of the Japanese capturing and executing Amelia and Fred were complete conspiracy rumor nonsense. The Japanese were no where near Howland Island.
My understanding of the rumour - documented by CBS man, Fred Goerner - was that neither was she.

Fred's "documentation" is based on accepting the testimony of people who claim to remember seeing an emaciated white woman in Japanese captivity. One would wish that a "CBS man" would do a better job of exercising reasonable doubt about anecdotes.

Goerner corresponded with some members of TIGHAR in the 1990s. If you are willing to make assumptions about the government's ability to deliver miraculous technology to AE and FN in 1937 so that they could fly over Japanese territory in the twilight or at night and gather useful military information, then the rest of the story is perfectly plausible.

Marty
TIGHAR #2359

[–] agent2009 14 years ago

5) A friendly fire?

...
I'm rich and divorced

[–] WhoAteMyCookie 14 years ago

1) It was obvious from the radio communication that Amelia was almost on top of tiny Howland Island and the vessel, Itasca. But the low-hanging thick cloud and mist cover hindered her ability to detect the extremely tiny island.

She may have been close according to signal strength (in reality not movie) and according to history there was limited vision to see the smoke from the ship but if she could see clear ocean then how would she not be able to see the smoke from the ship?
Point being she was navigating from the right direction but theory has it she jumped around to many channels, may have turned back, or tried to reach an island (her back up plan) easier to find. Should she have brought the morse code transmitter or whatever it was with her and AE or Noonan actually decided to learn it they alleged broken transmissions and signal may have been eliminated. Also theory has it on her last take off attempt she damaged an attena underneath her plane.

3) The rumors of the Japanese capturing and executing Amelia and Fred were complete conspiracy rumor nonsense. The Japanese were no where near Howland Island. Also the naval personnel were transmitting to Amelia when she was as close as 100 miles to Howland Island. Neither did Amelia radio any spotting of Japanese vessels or aircraft.

Well if she could not see the ship off the island blowing smoke for visual site how would she see Japanese ships? Anywho I hardly doubt she landed on a Japanese island. The 2 bodies that some speak about were not fitting to either of AE or FN, doesnt mean it was not them but logical thinking says it was not them. Others who claim to have guarded the bodies that were buried were not found when excavation searches attempted. Next some evidence shows that an island was habitated or showed signs of habitation during a period the island was inhabited. Such things as a female skeleton between 5'5"-5'10" was found but eventually this skeleton was lost.

So basically it is not solved. If she ditched hardly a life jacket or life raft would have done any good. When the engines stopped the plane would have nose dived from the windmill effect of the propellars and likely killed the passengers on impact. If they were somehow able to survive impact and remain concious it is unlikely they would have had time to gather gear and escape to safety. The plane would have sunk to quickly.

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