“Stories are always jumbled up at first, but some of the discrepancies in the story itself just seem odd. Like the report that it was thought everybody had survived until the rescue crew found Fuddy in the fuselage.”
That story certainly doesn’t make any sense. I cannot completely discount the possibility the aircraft remained somewhat afloat until the rescuers arrived 30 minutes after the crash, but it seems extremely unlikely for a variety of reasons. Most aircraft fuselages quickly fill with seawater and sink to the seafloor, especiall in the moderate to strong wind conditions present that day. If the aircraft remained afloat, you would have thought the pilot would have kept everyone atop the floating wreckage as long as possible, rather than risk exposure, waves, currents, sharks, and drowning in the rough seas. That report just doesn’t make any sense.
“It’s not that hard to count to nine. And if Fuddy was out of the plane then how did her body get back into the fuselage to be found by the rescuers? As I noted in another thread, there are 11 people accounted for in the official transport stories but only 9 people were on board.”
Are there any other reports or photographs which positively say the aircraft fuselage remained afloat long eough for the rescuers to board it?
One story said that when rescuers got there, the tail of the plane was sticking out of the water. But the initial reports said that Fuddy was found in the fuselage. Obviously the military pilot called to report the crash before help arrived, and at that point he reported 8 people with life jackets in the water. If the crash pilot thought everybody was fine when there were only 8 people floating in the water, it would have to be because the 9th person had already started to swim for shore. And the later reports said that Fuddy had made it out of the fuselage. They’re saying that Yamamoto held Fuddy’s hand until Fuddy let go - that they were separated by waves. But then why did she end up in the fuselage?